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Published Apr 2015
320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
A sweeping debut spanning from China to Hawaii that follows four generations of a wealthy shipping family whose rise and decline is riddled with secrets and tragic love - from a young, powerful new voice in fiction.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Frank Leong, a fabulously wealthy shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of Oahu. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them. The parable of the red string of fate, the cord that binds one intended beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love, passing a destructive knot down the family line.
When Frank Leong is murdered, his family is thrown into a perilous downward spiral. Left to rebuild in their patriarch's shadow, the surviving members of the Leong family try their hand at a new, ordinary life, vowing to bury their gilded past. Still, the island continues to whisper - fragmented pieces of truth and chatter, until a letter arrives two decades later, carrying a confession that shatters the family even further.
Now the Leongs' survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong's only grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors' punishing knots.
Told through the eyes of the Leong's secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning The Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice and, miraculous hope.
"By skillfully weaving a murder mystery into the story, Wong keeps the pace moving, and the twist ending is a surprise. The only disappointment is the abrupt conclusion that is wrapped up too neatly and quickly, leaving readers wanting more." - Library Journal
"Although it reaches for an inevitability it doesn't achieve, a promising debut." - Kirkus
"Wong's multigenerational Hawaiian saga of deception and loyalty evocatively captures the tightly controlled worlds of privilege and power." - Booklist
"Ms. Wong's first novel is a vivid story of a family's journey over time. We live and breathe with her characters as we witness history shaping family, and family creating its own history. Diamond Head is a jewel of a saga." - Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
"Cecily Wong's lush debut novel hooked me in right away as it slowly unraveled the tangle of secrets the Leong family has kept for decades. Diamond Head is an intricate meditation on what is in our control and what is fate." - Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You
"[A] rich and compelling debut novel... With keen insight, effused with sadness and hope, Diamond Head is an auspicious debut." - Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Samurai's Garden and A Hundred Flowers
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