Book Review - "The Girl Who Wrote in Silk" by Kelli Estes

Before I read this novel, I had never heard of the discriminating Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 in the U.S., which was not repealed until 1943. I respect the author's honest attempt to bring an unsavory truth of Chinese-American history, through fiction, to the attention of a wider audience.

The story consists of a dual time-line: one that follows Mei Lin's tragic life in the 1800s on Orcas Island and the other one that traces Inara Erickson's present-day attempt to gradually unravel that tragedy. Although Mei Lin's story was the more compelling of the two, the tight weaving of the two universes nonetheless leaves the reader breathless. I'm giving the novel 4.4 stars.