Reviews Little Hut of Leaping Fishes

"Tei unfolds the story like a bolt of silk. Her style has a delicate simplicity, evoking a world far from us, geographically and culturally, with the deft brush strokes of a calligrapher."
The Scotsman

"A powerful and important story about family and tradition, duty and sacrifice, set in a time when China was threatened on all sides by the West and the smell of opium filled the air."
Xinran, author of Good Women of China

"Little Hut of Leaping Fishes has the breath and balance of a great nineteenth-century novel."
Times Literary Supplement (full review)

"... [A] lengthy but accessible historical saga... For such a populous story the style is deceptively light, the touch sensuous."
The Guardian (full review)

"The strength of the book ... is its portrayal of individuals struggling, as the world around them changes."
Financial Times (full review)

"...confines of the family mansion, the rivalries, adulteries, and jealousies, are all vividly evoked in fresh and exuberant prose."
New Books Magazine

"Chiew-Siah Tei is a master storyteller, and a rare talent. The Malaysian writer has that magical ability of being able to weave a spell over her readers, with riveting plots and prose that glows with life.... Tei has crafted a literary form all of her own. Her writing has the subtleties and nuances of Chinese prose... yet is written in masterful English, creating a strikingly original voice."
Time Out Hong Kong (full review)

"The tale is cohesive and compelling, the author’s voice loud and clear. The narrative style dispels any confusion that may have arisen out of the novel’s many issues — filial relationships, breaking with tradition, exploring new horizons and the advent of western influences."
The Star, Malaysia

"...Tei keeps the reader entertained with her graceful observations and steady handling of a significant slice of Chinese history."
The Sunday Herald

"The story unspools in small, stacco scenes in the present tense. Scenes of high drama are pared down to mere statements of almost haiku-like quality."
Scotland on Sunday

"Chiew-Siah Tei has produced a novel of great lyrical beauty that offers a finely balanced insight into the family dynasties and social hierarchies that underpinned Imperial China in the final decades of the 19th century. ... The language itself is so delicately worked that it is almost poetical, yet the action of the novel deals with many issues that are complex and confronting. ... The deeper themes are balanced by very real and well-portrayed characters, ... ensuring that readers will find the novel not only enlightening, but also enjoyable."
Susan Whelan, Suite 101 (full review)

"The prose was straightforward, the imagery clear. Every sentence was layered with subtle meaning."
The Herald

"Little Hut of Leaping Fishes is a delicious page-turner."
The New Straits Times

"There is opium, treachery, adultery, corruption and poverty, through which the central character, Mingzhi, threads his way with great delicacy, a little politics and intellectual honesty, using skills of the mind."
Tonight full review

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