Little Hut of Leaping Fishes
Tei, Chiew-Siah

RRP
A$32.95

It is 1875, and at Chai Mansion, two babies are born just months apart.

As first grandson of Master Chai, Mingzhi's life is already mapped out. Like his grandfather, an opium farmer and feudal landlord, he is destined to inherit wealth and power. His younger brother, Mingyuan, is not so lucky. As second grandson, his fate is to remain forever in his brother's shadow.

As the two boys grow, so too do their differences and as Mingzhi seeks to escape the corruption of the mansion through learning, Mingyuan falls under the spell of the dreaded poppy. But when the "foreign devils" threaten to invade, the two brothers must cast aside their bitter rivalry to ensure the survival of their family, and of each other.

Set during the dying days of Imperial China, Little Hut of Leaping Fishes is a sweeping tale of sibling rivalry, cultural upheaval and the indelible power of blood ties.

Author Information

Chiew-Siah Tei was born and raised in Tampin, a small town in southern Malaysia. A bilingual writer, she has won a series of awards for her Chinese prose. She wrote the script for Night Swimmer, which won Best Short Film at France's Vendome International Film Festival, and her play, Three Thousand Troubled Threads, was staged at the Edinburgh International Festival. Little Hut of Leaping Fishes is her first novel and will be published by Picador in the UK and Random House in the US in 2008.