Book Review: The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
In The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, the author once again delves into the complexities of cultural identity, family bonds, and the invisible threads that connect past and present. With this novel, she moves beyond the dualities of East and West to explore the realms of memory, myth, and even the supernatural.
The story centers on Olivia, a Chinese American woman, and her older half-sister Kwan, who grew up in China and believes she can communicate with ghosts. From childhood, Olivia finds Kwan’s stories embarrassing and incomprehensible — tales of past lives, lost love, and ghostly whispers that seem to have no place in modern America. But as their lives intertwine and they travel to China together, Olivia is forced to confront not only her sister’s truths, but also the hidden parts of herself.
Tan’s writing here is lush and layered. She blends humor with heartbreak, realism with fantasy, and the result is a story that feels both intimate and expansive. Kwan, with her broken English and unwavering belief in “Yin people,” becomes the soul of the novel — a character who charms, frustrates, and ultimately transforms the people around her. Through Kwan’s voice, Tan raises profound questions about what we choose to believe, and how the stories we inherit shape the people we become.
The Hundred Secret Senses is less about ghosts than it is about memory, belonging, and the “secret senses” we all carry — our intuition, our longing, and our need for connection. It’s a novel that asks readers to open their minds and hearts to more than just what they see.
Deeply emotional and beautifully told, Amy Tan’s novel is a poignant meditation on love, identity, and the mysteries that live just beneath the surface of everyday life.
About The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
The “wisest and most captivating novel”(Boston Globe) from the author of the bestselling The Joy Luck Club and The Backyard Bird Chronicles
Set in San Francisco and in a remote village of Southwestern China, Amy Tan’s The Hundred Secret Senses is a tale of American assumptions shaken by Chinese ghosts and broadened with hope. In 1962, five-year-old Olivia meets the half-sister she never knew existed, eighteen-year-old Kwan from China, who sees ghosts with her “yin eyes.” Decades later, Olivia describes her complicated relationship with her sister and her failing marriage, as Kwan reveals her story, sweeping the reader into the splendor and violence of mid-nineteenth century China. With her characteristic wisdom, grace, and humor, Tan conjures up a story of the inheritance of love, its secrets and senses, its illusions and truths.
