Praised for her lyrical writing and historical knowledge, Anchee Min is the author of the bestselling memoir Red Azalea. Growing up during the Cultural Revolution in China, Min spent time in a labor camp and was chosen for a lead role in a propagandist movie before the Mao communist regime collapsed. The New York Times Book Review said that Red Azalea, her account of that time, exists as "a powerful political as well as literary statement." Min has since written five other works of historical fiction, among them Becoming Madame Mao and Empress Orchid. Her new novel is an intimate portrayal of Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck, exploring the fateful friendship between the writer and a young Chinese woman.

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