From the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus comes a heart-wrenching story about finding strength in a new world.Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife—a paper wife.On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. … girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.
Mei Ling is penniless, pregnant, and bound to a man she doesn’t know. Her fragile marriage is tested further when she discovers that Siew will likely be forced into prostitution. Desperate to rescue Siew, she must convince her husband that an orphan’s life is worth fighting for. Can Mei Ling find a way to make a real family—even if it’s built on a paper foundation?
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What a beautiful and sad story. Amazing writing and well written. This is a book I will re read and one I will always remember. I will be reading more from this author. I admire our main character and her strength. She never gave up and always looking forward for herself and her family. I would of done the same thing for family and people I care about. Learning how things were doing back then. Highly recommended this book.
About Book-
Set in 1923 in China Mei ling who is arranged to be married. And is moving to America to take care of a new son. Mei Ling learns about the American way. Meeting new people and protecting others.
I love books written about the Chinese culture. Everything about the culture, their traditions, and the way they live their lives has always fascinated me. Paper Wife was an excellent look at the times and traditions of China in the 1920’s—an arranged marriage for Mei Ling and a long voyage to America with a man she didn’t even know. And then to find out that what she thought was the truth, was a lie. But wasn’t she living a lie, as well?
Paper Wife is beautifully written and I fell in love with all of the characters that made up Mei Ling’s family. The story is full of life struggles as everyone tries to adjust to each other, and to their new lives, but it’s also full of love. I really enjoyed this story and look forward to ready more books by this author.
I enjoyed this novel because it sheds light on a little-known part of our nation’s history. The author reveals the struggles of Chinese immigrants as they make a life in California during the 1920s.
This Is a very beautiful story about life choices, responsibilities, and some cultural obligations. The story starts in an Asian country, with a poor family and takes you on a ships journey To the USA in the 1920”s. The story seems to be a little slow moving at times, but that may just be the norm for this type of Asian-American family drama.
The book is full of great details and i think it’s a good view into difficulties, trials, and the hard decisions that could be faced by immigrants coming into the USA and I suppose other countries as well. This author has a gift for details and engrossing characters.
If you love strong women with good hearts and fierce loyalty, you will love the main character and you will enjoy seeing her learn to soar under her own wings as she fights to save the family she builds. Watch the twist at the end ~ Enjoy
I truly enjoyed Paper Wife by Laila Ibrahim. Mei Ling was a great example of a strong woman protecting her children, even those children who were not blood related. I had never realized people entered this country under assumed identities and that human trafficking happened even back in the 1920s. Mei Ling transformed from the beginning of the book to the end, but always stayed true to her dragon personality. I would definitely recommend this book to others.
Mei Ling cannot believe that today is the day that she is leaving to wed a man she has never met, and to sail to a new country. To the land of gold, California. She is sad, but this will be good for her family, this matchmaker is well known for what she does and she cannot let her family or sister down. She must be strong and do as asked, although fear is coursing through her.
In order to get into the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife – known as a paper wife. She must take on her identity and know all there is about her and her knew husband, Kai Li. She cannot believe what is happening, did her family know this is how it worked and what would happen? But she must honor her family and what they’ve done to give her this secure future. Plus, there is Kai’s son Bo to now think about, now her son.
As they voyage over the ocean, Bo makes a friend with a girl Siew. Siew has seemed to be left on her own and soon attaches herself to them. The girl is very well behaved, helps with Bo and seems mature beyond her six years old. Once they get to the new land, she is put under strict questioning and fears she will be sent back to China.
Hearing her name called, and that she is going on the next ship to San Francisco gives way to relief. She has passed, as this other “wife”, and soon she will be reunited with her husband to start her new life. Although her and Bo are sad and worried to leave Siew behind. But Mei Ling has a lot to figure out herself, and so she tries to put aside Siew in hopes that she has family here waiting for her.
As Mei Ling and Bo finally get reunited with Kai Li and they go “home”, she realizes that things don’t appear as what her and her family were told from the matchmaker. Her husband is not really this successful merchant as lead to believe, but just a houseboy himself. She cannot believe what is happening. So far everything has been a lie, even herself.
Mei Ling is determined to honor the vows she made, and her family and their beliefs and does what she can to honor her husband and be a good wife. Soon, they will have another person to look after as well. She is unsure about this, as Kai Li is not a very open person. It’s like the two of them dance around life each day.
She realizes, she cannot get Siew out of her mind and needs to know the girl is safe. After talking with her husband, he agrees that he will put some feelers out and see what he can find out. As the two work together, truths and lies come to light about both of them but they both have agreed to make the best of things and to honor the other.
Will Mei Ling and Kai Li be able to make a life for themselves and be happy raising these children, or will they have to learn to just live with each other due to the arrangement that was made, and their heritage in honoring their family beliefs? Can love love come out of such an arrangement, and relationship started on a bed of lies?
Laila never disappoints in her novels! The storylines just flow and this opened up my eyes to “paper-people”. I had no idea that this was such a thing and how some people migrated here during the 1920’s. It was also to read about all of the different laws, treaties and Acts that were put in to place to try and stop this and slow the amount of people immigrating.
The story opens with Mei Ling’s plight as the second daughter of a poor family in a small village in China. The matchmaker has pledged her older sister to a merchant living in the US. Not only will the sister marry a stranger but she’s expected to leave her family and her country to journey to a distant land where she knows no one. And things do not go as planned.
Laila Ibrahim paints a wonderful portrait of Mei Ling, her Dragon fire, the prayers she utters every day to honor her family and ancestors. But the harrowing experience of Chinese immigration casts a pall on this strong spirit. There are months of a rocky sea voyage followed by separation on Angel Island from her barely known husband, all taking place in a foreign land whose customs and language are unknown. Most people could not survive. Many did not.
Mei Ling’s Dragon helps her to weather her predicament. It was satisfying to see her strength and curiosity take command of her environment, to make friends, to foster relationships with her husband and son and others around her and eventually make something of herself. I loved the constant reminders of her Chinese heritage, the footing that helps her build a bridge to her new community. I loved the tenderness that emerges in her husband. She’s a fighter, and from that power comes great rewards.
I love historical fiction, especially this kind. I slightly remember learning about “paper” families. It is a very interesting concept and shows just how badly people wanted to come to America. It also shows how hard some were willing to work and learn to be where they were. I loved how strong the main character was in this book. I loved watching her grow and work with her husband and family. It is a lot for me to understand and wrap my head around, but I am glad to learn from what i read.
Unable to put it down. Easy to follow
Mei Ling’s family has lost their fortune to warlords and invaders, so they decide that their eldest daughter Jah Jeh must become a paper wife (a woman who takes on the identity of someone else; in Jah Jeh’s case, her new husband has lost his wife, but needs a wife to take care of him and his son in America.. The paper wife would take on the dead wife’s identify and go to America in her stead). But Jah Jeh becomes sick and Mei Ling must go in her place. Her new husband does not know that one sister has been substituted for the other, and this is just the beginning of the secrets that Mei Ling must keep. But Mei Ling is not the only one with secrets; on the voyage to America she takes a young orphan girl, Siew, under her wing, only to find that there are mysteries about Siew’s family. Separated upon arrival in San Francisco, Mei Ling can only hope that Siew us in good hands. And it turns out that Mei Lin’s husband is not the successful merchant that he said; he’s a houseboy. But they both work hard and a relationship develops over time. When Mei Ling finds Siew, it threatens the safety of Mei Ling’s family, she takes action which change their lives.
The Paper Wife is a wonderful story of devotion to family under the hardest of circumstances, and well worth reading.
Historical fiction they shared an adventure of a young Chinese immigrant coming to America from s small Chinese village in the 20’s. Wonderful description of emotion and familial bonds
Immigration story you’ll never forget!
Paper wife is about a girl in China who was set up by a matchmaker to marry someone she never met. She had to move to the United States leaving her family behind. Her new husband had a child. She finds he is not the person he said he was. He was poor and not a merchant he said he was. She decided to try her best to make this marriage work. She met a young girl of the age of 6 on her ocean voyage who she cared for and they were going to meet in California to keep in touch. She realized this girl was in trouble and did what she could to save her. This is a page turner. Highly recommend.
I really enjoy this authors writing style, she brings the characters to light, in a way that makes you have a clear picture as to how you feel about each one.
In all of the stories I have read about China, I do not remember reading about, Paper wives or (son, daughters). A fascinating way for people to get into the country with fraudulent papers. This started in response to war and famine in China, the Chinese exclusion act and the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.
The book starts off in China, in a small village where an eldest daughter is sought by an unknown suitor to be his wife, through a matchmaker. He is Chinese as well, with a son, but is a resident of California. To be able to get into the USA with him, she must take on the identity of his dead wife.(thus a paper wife)
With a few changes and a few white lies, she sets out to meet her husband and child to be, and set off on a long journey by sea to her new home. Men and women are separated and the conditions are not very good.
On this voyage, she meets some people who will be her friends at the end of the journey and very dear to her.
Wonderful characters, and I love seeing how each of them, evolved, given the very different circumstances, they have had to get used to.
I won’t give a lot of details as I believe that is part of the fun you will have as you read it.
This author also wrote Yellow Crocus and it’s sequel Mustard Seed which I loved.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book.
Lisa See fans will love Paper Wife! I have read everything by Lis See, so I know! Paper Wife gave an entirely different story of Chinese immigration to America. I had never heard the term Paper Wife and was intrigued with Mei Ling’s secret of two false identities and how that mystery would unfold. I loved the surprise of her husband’s identity and how they forged a life in San Francisco and Oakland. Many surprises unfold artfully, making the pages turn themselves. But the biggest surprise of all shocked me. I am still amazed what happened when Mei Ling’s dragon spirit is unleashed. Fantastic read!