Publisher: Simon Schuster Canada, August 2nd, 2022

Format: paperback

Pages: 384

Rating: 5/5 stars

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

The New York Times bestselling author of the “mesmerizing and evocative” (Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants) Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet returns with a powerful exploration of the love that binds one family across the generations.

Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living.

As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Fearing that her child is predestined to endure the same debilitating depression that has marked her own life, Dorothy seeks radical help.

Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family: Faye Moy, a nurse in China serving with the Flying Tigers; Zoe Moy, a student in England at a famous school with no rules; Lai King Moy, a girl quarantined in San Francisco during a plague epidemic; Greta Moy, a tech executive with a unique dating app; and Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman to set foot in America.

As painful recollections affect her present life, Dorothy discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period. A stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories. Dorothy endeavors to break the cycle of pain and abandonment, to finally find peace for her daughter, and gain the love that has long been waiting, knowing she may pay the ultimate price. 

My Review:

Thank you Simon and Schuster Canada for the copy of this book!
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I loved this book so much! It follows Afong Moy and her family from the early 1800s into the late 2000s and it focuses on the impact of trauma and how trauma can be passed on through generations. Afong was the first Chinese woman in the US and had some pretty terrible experiences.
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I loved the concept of the book and that we got to read about the experiences from each character’s perspectives, and then through Dorothy, we get to see new technology that treats inter-generational trauma. I did not want to put this book down!
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CW: racism, sexism, misogyny, domestic abuse, sexual assault, violence.