"Snow Flower and the secret fan" by Lisa See

This book just make me almost cry, but also smile, think about things which are described there, human feelings and so on. A wonderful story, well written by Lisa See.


It’s a story of a life-long friendship between Lily and Snow Flower, two Chinese girls (later women). When the date of binding the feet of small girls is near, by the help of matchmaker , the adults decide that these two girls will be “the same” – friends forever. They write to each other letters full of emotions, wonderful words and using – instead of paper – a fan. They meet each other a few times each year, spend some holidays together. Time is passing, girls are growing, both of them are engaged, later married. They share together the joys, but much more often sorrows of being a young girl, who needs to be obedient to all people around her – parents, brothers, older sisters, later to her husband, parents-in-law, brothers-in-law and so on. They try hard to give birth to sons, it’s a main duty of women and her “guarantee” for the future. Their friendship is developing, growing, even against a bad luck and events around them. But then something happened. Will the friendship survive? Will they stay the most important person in the life of each of them? How our feelings are influencing our decisions? What is more important – heart or mind?


I love the plot so much. But also the poetic style of writing, colorful language used in the book. The beauty showed even in the description of simple actions taken in daily life. The feelings which author insert into this book influenced me during reading for sure. Sometimes it was difficult to stop reading, even if I needed to do something else instead. The characters in the book are so human, full of good and bad features, feelings, doing mistakes. And all those things were for me written so realistically! The girls are so sweet and lovely, but the relation which was created between them as adults was just amazing, so complicated, multileveled, full of emotions.



I strongly recommend reading this book for all people, who love books written with beautiful language. It was very good beginning of my adventure with the books of Lisa See. Now, I’ll look impatiently for her next book :)