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And The Ancestors Sing
Table of Contents
About The Book
In 1978, as the Cultural Revolution fades into history, Lei is bartered away into marriage for two cartons of cigarettes and a handful of eggs. She finds herself in the unfamiliar village of her new husband where she is met with indifference. When a disaster upends their world, Lei and her husband are forced to join China’s vast wave of city-bound, rural migrants, leaving behind children whom they may never see again.
Sixteen-year-old LuLu arrives in Shanghai with nothing but ambition. Denied a factory job and determined to keep her family from starving, she turns to sex work, navigating the dangers of the city’s underbelly with sharp wit and a fierce will to survive. When a powerful client offers her a chance at security, LuLu faces an impossible choice: seize a future that could lift her family from poverty, or risk everything for a life on her own terms.
Immersive, evocative, and impeccably detailed, And The Ancestors Sing is a sweeping, multigenerational story of sacrifice, survival, and the unbreakable pull of home.
Product Details
- Publisher: Rising Action (February 3, 2026)
- Length: 384 pages
- ISBN13: 9781998672219
Raves and Reviews
Original, deftly crafted, compelling, and an inherently fascinating read from cover to cover, "And The Ancestors Sing" by Radha Lin Chaddah, with its unique multigenerational story arc, rises to an impressive level of literary excellence due to the character-and-narrative-driven storytelling talents of its author. Unreservedly recommended.
– Midwest Book Review
I would recommend this book to folks who like historical fiction, multigenerational novels, or who want to learn more about the HIV/AID epidemic in China.
– Broad Street Review
Chaddah ... writes with clarity and warmth ... illuminating mental health struggles and the way they impact people's lives ... [And The Ancestors Sing] is a novel that brings to life ... the abstractions of globalization and its impact on urban and rural China.
– Kirkus
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