The Bonesetter's Daughter

By: Amy Tan

Narrated by: Amy Tan, Joan Chen

Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in contemporary San Francisco and in a Chinese village where Peking Man is being unearthed, The Bonesetter's Daughter is an excavation of the human spirit: the past, its deepest wounds, its most profound hopes.

The story conjures the pain of broken dreams, the power of myths, and the strength of love that enables us to recover in memory what we have lost in grief. Over the course of one fog-shrouded year, between one season of falling stars and the next, mother and daughter find what they share in their bones through heredity, history, and inexpressible qualities of love.

©2001 Amy Tan (P)2005 Phoenix Audio. All Rights Reserved.

Critic reviews

"In the end, it's the novel's depth of feeling that resonates and lingers. Tan writes with real soul." (Washington Post Book World)
"Storytelling in its oldest and truest form." (AudioFile)

Loved this book

My daughter was reading this book for school so I listed to it and loved it. The author read part of it and the rest was read by a woman with a perfect accent. Loved it!! And learned a lot too.

Bonesetters daughter is worth the wait

The beginning is difficult but second half of book fills you in. Keep at it and you will understand it all.

Very well done. I read this story once before.

Great narration. One of my favorite books. Sad that it ended. Try it for yourself.

amazing!

I loved the story and how it unfolded. This was absolutely beautiful! So rich, deep and full of meaning!

Beautifully narrated

This was a pleasure to listen to. The story was moving and wonderful. I will definitely be listing to more Amy Tan

The Bonesetter’s Daughter

It was great. A little slow at the start, but when it got into the story behind the story, I couldn’t stop listening. I love history. Very enjoyable.

Good book but narration a struggle

The storyline of this book is definitely interesting and author Amy Tan keeps the audience engaged to the end. She truly has a beautiful way with words.

I cannot say the same for the person who narrated this audio book! Her voice was pleasant, kind of like your grandma reading a book …but when she is tired. She would run paragraphs into each other which confused scene changes…and there are many. When she attempted various ethnic accents she would vacillate in and out of them, especially during extended dialogue. It was annoying. She lost the distinguishing essence of many a character. For these reasons I am glad I was both listening to and reading this book at the same time. It helped provide a road map through an amateur book read.

I recommend the book but sincerely hope Audible uses a reader with more refined talents for Amy Tan’s other work.

A little bland and a little sad

Although the main narrator does an excellent job with the Asian accents, the rest of her narration is very monotone, dull and lacking a sharpness that's necessary when telling a story. The story itself is a little dull as well. I think it would be a better read than it is a listen.

This one will stay with you

This book is amazing!! And the readers voices are so touching. I listened to this one right after listening to the Last Chinese Chef and the transition was terrific. The story is beautiful and the history so rich and the story line so well done. Fantastic book. Didn't want it to end.

Pretty Good

This is my third Amy Tan book. I have not read a novel from her in years and this book helped me to remember why she is one of my favorite authors. Amy Tan has a timeless writing style. That is the only way I can describe it. She doesn't write overly poetic or too simple. Amy Tan writes with a unique style that is perfect in every way. Her Chinese voice and American Chinese voice interchange with ease.
This book addresses mother-daughter relations and the complexes feelings involved. Ruthie is the daughter most of us are. At times, our mom's are not making any sense to us, other times we are just fitting them into our busy lives, while we trying to be mothers to our kids.
I love reading books about historical Chinese culture, like Snow Flower and The Secret Fan and The Concubine Saga. This book mixes the past with the present of the women in one family. From generation to generation the reader gets to see why things are the the way they are in one family. Why does Ruthie's mom think she going to be punished?
I like the way Amy Tan makes the sequence of events follow so easily in this book. You can see the cause and effect in each chapter.
The only reason I am taking a star away, is this book did not have me hooked like her other book Saving Fish From Drowning. Was I missing something? I think it was just the slow start in the beginning. It gets me every time.
Overall, a good read.