October 2025 - The Bonesetter's Daughter
The Bonesetter’s Daughter is a novel by acclaimed American author Amy Tan and is a multigenerational novel that explores the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, memory, and cultural identity.
The story centres around Ruth Young, a Chinese-American woman living in San Francisco, and her mother LuLing Liu Young, who is beginning to show signs of dementia. When LuLing gives Ruth her memoirs written in Chinese, Ruth has them translated, and through those pages, she learns of her mother’s painful past and the family secrets that shaped both their lives. It also allowed her to understand why those secrets haunted her mother’s entire life and shaped her often tumultuous relationship with her. This understanding helped Ruth heal some of her emotional wounds and gave her a sense of closure and peace.
Our group found the story and themes very relatable, and we were also moved by the honesty of the characters’ struggles, especially the heartbreaking bond between LuLing and Precious Auntie. Anyone with complicated family relationships or cultural ties can see parts of themselves in book’s themes of frustration, guilt, and eventual understanding. We also felt that the story wasn’t just about mothers and daughters, but about the healing power of listening and telling our stories before they are forgotten.
The story’s ultimate message – that understanding and forgiveness can bridge even generations of pain feels uplifting and hopeful. I think though that we all felt the sadness that these understandings and eventual healing for Ruth came too late for her and her mother (LuLing) to repair their relationship as LuLing was by then afflicted with dementia; and also for LuLing and her mother (Precious Aunty) as Precious Aunty had killed herself before LuLing had realized that Precious Aunty was not only her caretaker and nanny, but also her mother.
Our group rated this book 8/10
Review thanks to Su Lin Yap