Their Divine Fires: A Novel

Written by Wendy Chen

Narrated by Katharine Chin

A captivating and intimate debut novel interwoven with folktale and myth, Wendy Chen’s Their Divine Fires tells the story of the love affairs of three generations of Chinese women across one hundred years of revolutions both political and personal.  

In 1917, at the dawn of the Chinese Revolution, Yunhong grows up in the southern China countryside and falls deeply in love with the son of a wealthy landlord despite her brother's objections. On the night of her wedding, her brother destroys the marriage before it has even lasted a day and irrevocably changes the shape of Yunhong's family to come; her daughter Yuexin will never know her father. Haunted by a history that she will never fully understand, Yuexin passes those memories onto her daughters Hongxing and Yonghong, who come of age in the years following Mao’s death, battling the push and pull of political forces as they forge their own paths. Each generation guards its secrets, leaving Emily, great granddaughter of Yunhong and living in contemporary America, to piece together what actually happened between her mother, her sister, and the weight of their shared ancestry.  

Drawing on the lives of her great-grandmother and her great-uncles—both of whom fought on the side of the Communists—as well as her mother’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution, Wendy Chen infuses Their Divine Fires with a passion that will transport the reader back to powerful moments in history while bringing us close to the women who persisted despite the forces all around them. Both brilliant and haunting, it's a story about what our ancestors will, and won't, tell us.

 
“This is the family saga that I’ve been craving, a sensitive and deeply human reckoning with the aftermath of historical trauma and what happens when we try to speak the unspeakable. Chen’s writing is arresting, lyrical, and full of verve. Their Divine Fires will burn in my memory for years to come.” —Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy

“Wendy Chen has crafted a peerless first novel that I expect to be the sleeper hit of the season. Read this!” —Mary Karr, author of The Liar’s Club

“Impressively epic yet intimate, unputdownable yet historically significant, Their Divine Fires moved me to my core. What an incredible page-turner! What a rare talent Wendy Chen is! This debut novel is a testament to the power of fiction in reconciling with the secrets of our past. The lyricism of Wendy’s prose and the emotional depth of her storytelling will stay with me for years to come.”
—Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, internationally bestselling author of The Mountains Sing and Dust Child
 
“Their Divine Fires is a fascinating and powerful debut. In gorgeous, elegant prose, Chen follows multiple generations of one family, intimately tracing how living through the Chinese Revolution and its aftermath shapes them in ways they don’t always fully understand.  As the years go by, we see the consequences play out in their lives, and ultimately how their deep connections to one another prevail.”
—Dana Spiotta, author of Wayward


“A gorgeous, emotionally searing debut about the lasting and mysterious effects of the past— both political and personal—particularly on girls and women confined and defined by others in a volatile world. Chen has woven together a moving, complex novel that takes us on multiple journeys of love, sacrifice, and grief. These characters are utterly unforgettable.” —Alexandra Chang, author of Days of Distraction
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: May 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9781668641156

Reviews for Their Divine Fires

[srms.reads · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

“’It is our history that sets us apart from other families,’ Da Ge said. ‘History that sets others apart from us.’”

Their Divine Fires by Wendy Chen is a multigenerational family saga that follows four generations of Chinese and Chinese American women as they navigate through personal loss and tragedy, social and political upheaval and much more. Spanning over a century, we follow our characters through a period of great political and social change in China – from the communist party and peasant revolts leading up to the Chinese Revolution, Japan’s invasion of China, the Cultural Revolution- to present day China and the United States. As the narrative progresses, we follow these characters and bear witness to their hardship, their strength and sacrifices and the consequences of the choices they make and the secrets they keep.

The story begins in the southern China countryside in 1917 with ten-year-old Yunhong and is shared from the perspectives of the main characters across four generations. The story continues with Yuexin, Yunhong’s daughter in China. Yonhong, one of Yuexin’s daughters, emigrates with her family to the United States while her sister Hongxing stays in China and pursues a career in acting. In the United States, Yonhong’s daughter Emily, is motivated to explore the history of the women when she chances upon an old trunk, the contents of which tell a story of love, loss and family secrets.

I loved the premise of this novel. The prose is elegant and I loved the symbolism and the vivid descriptions of the traditions as well as the setting in the first half of the novel. However, I wish the author had woven the significance of the symbolism of the shared birthmark more strongly into the narrative. The author depicts the complicated relationships and friction between the characters realistically, both from the perspectives of the characters concerned as well as those who observe them. The beginning of the story drew me in and I was immersed ( and invested ) in Yunhong’s story, which ends abruptly and we move on to the next generation with more time jumps, long gaps in the narrative and more telling than showing. The disjointed nature of the narrative that follows and the uneven pacing prevented me from connecting with any of the other characters in the story. Certain aspects of the story could have been explored more deeply and the fates of a few of the characters (who were important to the story) are only mentioned in passing as the narrative progresses.

I read an ARC of this novel and am not aware whether the finished copy includes a Note on the historical context of this story. If it does, I believe your reading experience might be richer than my own. Though I wasn’t entirely ignorant of the political landscape of China which serves as a backdrop for this story, I felt that perhaps a bit more perspective or even a well penned Historical Note would have allowed for a better comprehension of the events that were defining moments in the characters’ lives, thereby rendering this short novel more impactful.

Many thanks to Algonquin Books for the digital review copy via NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the ALC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.