title: The Concubine's Daughter: A Novel
author:  Pai Kit Fai 
description: In 1906 Southern China, newborn Li-Xia (Li) is nearly murdered by her elderly father because she is a girl, only to be saved by the specter of a fox fairy. Li lives in a rice shed mostly forgotten, as she wonders about her dead mother, who had been an educated concubine. After Li rebels against attempts to bind her feet, she is sold on her eighth birthday to a silk merchant and finds a temporary family among the female laborers while she dreams of learning to read and write. Capt. Benjamin Jean-Paul Devereaux rescues her by buying her freedom and safe passage on his ship, and she is able to fulfill her dream of literacy. They marry, defying societal norms, but in Hong Kong, Li is assaulted by an enemy of her husband, and fearing for her newborn girl, Siu-Sing, she has the child taken to safety in the mountains. Siu-Sing learns about her lineage and returns to face her own tribulations as WWII is about to begin. Fai's multigenerational tale has predictable elements, but is nonetheless an engaging and entertaining read. <i>(Oct.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  “You will stay in the palace, as my guest.” Ramiz turned toward her. In the
  firelight, his eyes seemed to glow like amber.
  
  
  
  
  
  “Do you mean I am to stay in a harem?” Celia’s eyes widened in shock. Images
  from A Thousand and One Nights, of scantily-clad concubines oiling themselves
  and lolling about on velvet cushions sprang to her mind. “Your highness,
  Ramiz, I am flattered that you should consider adding me to your collection of
  wives, but…”
  
  “My wife! You overestimate your value. A Western woman, even a titled one,
  could not aspire to such an exalted position. At best perhaps, she could serve
  as a concubine.”
  
  Celia gave an outraged gasp. “You expect me to be your concubine! I absolutely
  will not! How dare you! How dare you suggest such an outrageous, indecent…”
  
  He moved so suddenly she had no chance of escape. He seemed to uncoil, to
  pounce, so that one minute she was sitting next to him, the next she was being
  dragged helplessly to her feet, held in arms s