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The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane: A Novel Audiobook
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Publisher Description
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa See, “one of those special writers capable of delivering both poetry and plot” (The New York Times Book Review), a moving novel about tradition, tea farming, and the bonds between mothers and daughters.
In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen.
The stranger’s arrival marks the first entrance of the modern world in the lives of the Akha people. Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she has a baby out of wedlock—conceived with a man her parents consider a poor choice—she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city.
As Li-yan comes into herself, leaving her insular village for an education, a business, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins. Across the ocean Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the course of years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.
A powerful story about circumstances, culture, and distance, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane paints an unforgettable portrait of a little known region and its people and celebrates the bond of family.
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“Through Ruthie Ann Miles’ earnest narration, listeners are quickly drawn into a culturally complex and historically rich story…Multiple narrators give scope and varied characterizations to several scenes, but the bulk of the narration is done by Miles from the perspective of Li-Yan and by Kimiko Glenn as Hayley. See’s writing is evocative…and the cast serves to enhance her storytelling through spirited characterizations and a keen understanding of each person’s relation to the overall work. Ideal for fans of historical fiction, coming-of-age tales, and tea.”
— AudioFile
Quotes
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“A lush tale infused with clear-eyed compassion, this novel will inspire reflection, discussion,k and an overwhelming desire to drink rare Chinese tea.”
— Washington Post -
“An alluring escape, a satisfying and vivid fable that uses an Akha belief to tap into our own longings for coincidence.”
— San Francisco Chronicle -
“Lisa See transports readers to the remote mountains of China…come for the heartwarming bonding between mother and daughter; stay for the insight into Akha culture and the fascinating (really) history of the tea trade.”
— Real Simple -
“With vivid and precise details about tea and life in rural China, Li-Yan’s gripping journey to find her daughter comes alive.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“With strong female characters, See deftly confronts the changing role of minority women, majority-minority relations, East-West adoption, and the economy of tea in modern China.”
— Library Journal
Awards
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A March 2017 LibraryReads Pick
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An Amazon Best Book of the Month for March 2017
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A New York Times Bestseller
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A 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Best Fiction Narration
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A 2018 Audie Award Finalist for Best Multi-Voiced Performance
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane Listener Reviews
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sonia mcvean, 8/5/2017
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cereda selzer, 5/24/2017
About Lisa See
Lisa See is the acclaimed author of several novels, including five New York Times bestsellers. She has won the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Association of Southern California and the Historymaker’s Award from the Chinese American Museum. She was also named National Woman of the Year by the Organization of Chinese American Women
About the Narrators
Gabra Zackman is an actress, author, and narrator who has won several AudioFile Earphones Awards. She was educated at Northwestern University. A classically trained actress, she has appeared in theaters all over the country as well as on film and television.
Jeremy Bobb is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and an accomplished actor whose film credits include The Knick, Godless, Mosaic, and The Wolf of Wall Street. He has performed in numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, including Is He Dead? and Cactus Flower.
Joy Osmanski, theater, television, and film actress, is an award-winning audiobook narrator who has won three AudioFile Earphones Awards. She graduated from Principia College with a degree in creative writing and received her MFA from UC San Diego.
Julia Whelan is a novelist, screenwriter, lifelong actor, and multiple award-winning audiobook narrator. She graduated with a degree in English and creative writing from Middlebury College and Oxford University. She is a former child actor who has appeared in multiple films and television shows.
Eileen Stevens is a voice-over actress whose voice can be heard on cartoons, promos, programs for English-language learners, and audiobooks. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she is also an audiobook director and producer.
Edoardo Ballerini, an American actor, director, film producer, and multiaward–winning narrator. He has won several Audie Awards for best narration, including for 2019’s Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was named by Booklist as winner of their 2023 Voice of Choice Award, and was named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine in 2019. He has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, from classics to modern masters, from bestsellers to the inspirational, from Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners to spine-tingling series, and much more. In television and film, he is best known for his roles in A Murder at the End of the World, The Sopranos, 24, I Shot Andy Warhol, Dinner Rush, and Romeo Must Die. He is also trained in theater and continues to do much work on stage.