Description

From the master of the historical novel, Empress Orchid sweeps readers in to the center of the Forbidden City to inform the intriguing tale of the young concubine who becomes China’s last empress. Minute presents the stunning Tzu Hsi, referred to as Orchid, and weaves an epic of the country woman who grabbed power through murder, seduction, and endless interest. When China is confronted by opponents, she alone seems with the capacity of keeping the nation together. Within this “absorbing companion piece to her book Becoming Madame Mao” (Ny Times), readers and reading groups may once more be moved by Min’s luxurious evocation of the Forbidden City in its final days of imperial beauty and by her amazing portrait of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman who survived, and eventually centered, a male planet.