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Paper Wife

A Novel

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Paper Wife

Written by: Laila Ibrahim
Narrated by: Nancy Wu
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About this listen

From the bestselling author of Yellow Crocus comes a heart-wrenching story about finding strength in a new world.

Southern China, 1923. Desperate to secure her future, Mei Ling’s parents arrange a marriage to a widower in California. To enter the country, she must pretend to be her husband’s first wife - a paper wife.

On the perilous voyage, Mei Ling takes an orphan girl named Siew under her wing. Dreams of a better life in America give Mei Ling the strength to endure the treacherous journey and detainment on Angel Island. But when she finally reaches San Francisco, she’s met with a surprise. Her husband, Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy, not the successful merchant he led her to believe.

Mei Ling is penniless, pregnant, and bound to a man she doesn’t know. Her fragile marriage is tested further when she discovers that Siew will likely be forced into prostitution. Desperate to rescue Siew, she must convince her husband that an orphan’s life is worth fighting for. Can Mei Ling find a way to make a real family - even if it’s built on a paper foundation?

©2018 Laila Ibrahim. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction United States World Literature Marriage
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What listeners say about Paper Wife

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Refreshing!

I appreciated finding out more about a paper wife and about the life of Chinese families in Oakland and San Francisco. I found it quite irritating to listen to the attempt to give a clear idea of what spoken English sounded like to an individual who spoke Mandarin.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Discovering a story about the past I knew nothing about

Even though this was a book of fiction, what it was based on was eye opening to me. It is always good to learn

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Different in an interesting way

The narrator didn't seem too great at first, however I found the story interesting and somehow everything fit together at some point. Loved hearing about this journey and the different people, customs, pieces and places that kept it moving along nicely. I would recommend this title.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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awesome!

I loved it! I've never gotten so into a audiobook before. this kept me on my feet for sure.

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Loved it!

I learned a lot about the culture & absolutely loved the it!! A great story! 😊

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Very good listening

I liked this book very much. I learned a little about the difficulties in China in the early 1920s, the conditions under which the imigrants would travel by boat, the way all imigrants were treated upon their arrival at Angel Island. The terrible language barrier between English and Cantonese.
I don't think that the story in that book could have happened, but I suppose it is why I read novels! And I enjoyed this one.

The narrator was good, but the passages where she was supposed to speak English with an accent that confounds the main character were very distracting and disturbing.

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2 people found this helpful