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From the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus comes a heart-wrenching story about finding strength in a new world.
Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling's parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband's first wife―a paper wife.
On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she's met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.
Mei Ling is penniless, pregnant, and bound to a man she doesn't know. Her fragile marriage is tested further when she discovers that Siew will likely be forced into prostitution. Desperate to rescue Siew, she must convince her husband that an orphan's life is worth fighting for. Can Mei Ling find a way to make a real family―even if it's built on a paper foundation?
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This information about Paper Wife was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Laila Ibrahim spent much of her career as a preschool director, a birth doula, and a religious educator. That work, coupled with her education in developmental psychology and attachment theory, provided ample fodder for the stories in her novels, Paper Wife, Mustard Seed, and Yellow Crocus.
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