The Flower Net (38 page)
Authors: Lisa See
“We won’t have to do that, auntie. They won’t demolish our
hutong
. Our paramount leader lived only a few blocks away. No one will destroy his neighborhood.”
“But Deng’s dead.”
“His home will become a pilgrimage site. The government will want to keep everything just as it was during his lifetime.”
“Um,” the old woman said thoughtfully. Then she clapped her palms on her widespread knees to signal a change in subject. “No matter what happens I must continue my duties as Neighborhood Committee director.”
“Of course,” Hulan agreed.
“And as such I have come to visit you today.” She hesitated, hoping Hulan would confess of her own accord and save her from this accusation, but the young woman only sat there, her hands folded calmly in her lap, her eyes focused on her mother in the garden. Madame Zhang cleared her throat. “I have not seen you bring home female products in many weeks, nor have I seen their remains in your trash.” Hulan did not deny this. “You know our one-child policy,” the older woman continued. “You have not applied for a pregnancy permit. You also know how our government feels about children outside of marriage…”
Without shifting her gaze from her mother and Uncle Zai as they sat under the jujube, their heads together as they recalled some happy memory, Liu Hulan reached out and patted the old woman’s hand. “You worry too much,” Hulan said. “It is almost spring and the harshness of winter is over. It is time for us all to begin new lives in China.”
L
ISA
S
EE
is the author of the critically acclaimed
New York Times
bestselling novel
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
, as well as
Peony in Love, The Interior, Dragon Bones
, and the widely acclaimed memoir
On Gold Mountain
. The Organization of Chinese American Women named her the 2001 National Woman of the Year. She lives in Los Angeles.
A
LSO BY
L
ISA
S
EE
Peony in Love
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
Dragon Bones
The Interior
On Gold Mountain
Praise for
Flower Net
"An impressive and welcome debut…It has been sixteen years since
Gorky Park
raised the ante in the game of international thriller novels. Now, Lisa See comes to the table to raise the stakes even higher."
—Mostly Murder
"If you have…an appreciation for atmospheric, tightly plotted suspense stories,
Flower Net
is a treat. Lisa See begins to do for Beijing what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did for turn-of-the-century London or Dashiell Hammett did for 1920s San Francisco: She discerns the hidden city lurking beneath the public façade."
—
The Washington Post Book World
"Finish
Flower Net
and you want to book a flight overseas…. A wonderful lesson about the changes going on in China as it emerges as a global economic power."
—
USA Today
"An unusual and highly successful thriller…In this, her first novel, Lisa See brings a cool, knowing eye to Chinese-American relations while crafting a nifty tale of suspense."
—
Chicago Tribune
"An ambitious and engaging mystery…expertly plotted and enriched with rare social, political and historical complication…. See has crafted an exceptional narrative, one that tweaks the reader into long hours under the lamp."
—
The Oregonian
"Fascinating…that rare thriller that enlightens as well as it entertains…a penetrating examination of modern Chinese culture, the forces that have shaped it and the ways in which it differs so greatly from our own. A good one."
—
San Diego Union-Tribune
“Colorful…[See] has done her homework…Hulan is a provocative mix of vulnerability, bitterness and hardheaded practicality.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“This page-turner is peopled with an incredibly evil array of villains and jam-packed with both expected and unexpected plot twists.”
—Rocky Mountain News
“A graceful rendering of two different and complex cultures, within a highly intricate plot…The starkly beautiful landscapes of Beijing and its surrounding countryside are depicted with a lyrical precision that…[comes] from a deeply abiding connection to the land and its peoples. Also vivid, exact, without any cloying traces of exoticism are See’s descriptions of the strangely lit neon shops and streets of L.A.’s Chinatown.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“This debut thriller is a standout.…Exciting…See adds an understanding of subtle and complex Sino-American political and social differences, typifies these qualities in a range of well-crafted characters and tops it all with a suspenseful plot.”
—Publishers Weekly
(starred review)
“High voltage sexual sparks…murder and intrigue splash across the canvas of modern Chinese life…a vivid portrait of a vast Communist nation in the painful throes of a sea change.”
—People
“Compelling…proclaims See’s considerable talent as a novelist, skillfully blending suspenseful storytelling, romantic intrigue, and stirring plot twists.”
—Booklist
Flower Net
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
2008 Random House Trade Paperback Edition
Copyright © 1997 by Lisa See
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
T
RADE
P
APERBACKS
and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover in the United States by HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. in 1997.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
See, Lisa.
Flower net: a novel/Lisa See.—Random House trade pbk. ed.
p. cm
1. Women detectives—China—Beijing—Fiction. 2. Government attorneys—United States—Fiction. 3. Americans—China—Fiction. 4. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 5. Organized crime—China—Fiction. 6. Conspiracies—Fiction. 7. China—Relations—United States—Fiction. 8. United States—Relations—China—Fiction. 9. Beijing (China)—Fiction. I. Title
PS3569.E3334F58 2008
813'.54—dc22 2007014492
eISBN: 978-1-58836-667-2
v3.0
