Ruth Young and her widowed mother, LuLing, have always had a tumultuous relationship. Now, before she succumbs to forgetfulness, LuLing gives Ruth some of her writings, which reveal a side of LuLing that Ruth has never known...

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—revealing deep wounds and profound hopes. 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.

Read by the author, Amy Tan, and actress Joan Chen (The Last Emperor), this 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.