PEACH BLOSSOM SPRING

Eugenia Low performs this powerful cross-cultural historical novel about a Chinese mother and young son who immigrate to America after enduring the horrors of the Japanese invasion in 1938. Destitute, Meilin and her son, Renshu, flee on foot with few possessions except an ancient scroll embellished with Chinese folktales. Low portrays Meilin's simultaneous fear and courage as she desperately protects her son on the journey and employs an increasingly confident voice for Renshu as his studies in America eventually earn him an engineering career. The story of Renshu's struggles as an immigrant student in the mid-twentieth century still resonates; he feels neither fully American nor fully Chinese. Low's British-Asian voice is easy on the ears, and her melodic delivery of Chinese words is delightful. N.M.C. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: MAY 2022]