In 1937, Hu Lian is a proud Minghua University student in the city of Nanking. Secretive, poor, and studious, Hu Lian is a dedicated daughter to her mother and often worries about her. She is also planning on traveling to Shanghai to be with her mother because of her worries about the Japanese. However, her plans are curtailed and she has no choice but to stay at school, especially when it is announced that the university will travel further inland to protect its valuable literary collection and the students themselves.
Along the way, Hu Lian will gain new friends and be confronted with a philosophy of communism that dares to force the gods back into their heavenly palace gates. She also will discover secrets about her crush, Liu Shaoming and his maidservant, Sparrow. As the roads and ideas get more dangerous, will Hu Lian and those she knows make out alive?
THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS by Janie Chang is a bittersweet tale to read, especially with gods abandoning humanity among the chaos. It is also emotional for those who are all too familiar with Chinese history from the 1930s to the present day.
I enjoyed that Janie Change brought to light an event almost unheard of in the West--university students protecting knowledge and running away from danger. I loved seeing China in the late 1930s, and learned quite a lot of Chinese lore and history throughout these pages. THE LIBRARY OF LEGENDS is a perfect book to expand readers' minds about what else was going on in the wake of WWII.
From the author of Three Souls and Dragon Springs Road comes a captivating historical novel—the third in a loosely-connected trilogy—in which a young woman travels across China with a convoy of student refugees, fleeing the hostilities of a brutal war with Japan.
“Myths are the darkest and brightest incarnations of who we are…”
China, 1937: When Japanese bombs begin falling on the city of Nanking, nineteen-year-old Hu Lian and her classmates at Minghua University are ordered to flee. Lian and a convoy of more than a hundred students, faculty, and staff must walk a thousand miles to the safety of China’s western provinces, a journey marred by hunger, cold, and the constant threat of aerial attack. And it is not just the student refugees who are at risk: Lian and her classmates have been entrusted with a priceless treasure, a 500-year-old collection of myths and folklore known as the Library of Legends.
Her family’s past has made Lian wary of forming attachments, but the students’ common duty to safeguard the Library of Legends forms unexpected bonds. Lian finds friendship and a cautious romance with the handsome and wealthy Liu Shaoming. But after one classmate is murdered and another arrested, Lian realizes she must escape from the convoy before a family secret puts her in danger. Accompanied by Shao and the enigmatic maidservant Sparrow, Lian makes her way to Shanghai, hoping to reunite with her mother.
On the journey, Lian learns of the connection between her two companions and a tale from the Library of Legends, The Willow Star and the Prince. Learning Shao and Sparrow’s true identities compels Lian to confront her feelings for Shao. But there are broader consequences too, for as the ancient books travel across China, they awaken immortals and guardian spirits to embark on an exodus of their own, one that changes the country’s fate forever.
Based on true events, rich in Chinese history and lore, The Library of Legends is both an illuminating exploration of China’s recent past and an evocative tale of love, sacrifice, and the extraordinary power of storytelling.
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