Peony is about a fifteen year old girl, soon to be married off to a boy she doesn't know. In fact, she doesn't know any boys. She's never left the family compound and has never met a man that wasn't part of her family. One night, right before her sixteenth birthday, her father hosts a staging of the opera The Peony Pavilion, which has great significance throughout the book. According to Chinese culture at the time, women could not be seen by men, so all the women watch the opera from behind a screen. Peony is obsessed with the opera, which is about a young woman who finally finds love in death and is brought back to life to be with her love. She's not the first; many young women have grown obsessed with the opera and its ideas of love, grown lovesick, and died as a result.
Through a crack in the screen, Peony spots a handsome man. Later, while on a walk through the gardens, she encounters him. They have a passionate talk about the opera and agree to meet the following night. And the night after that. By the end of their three nights, Peony is completely lovesick, devastated she is betrothed to another.
I won't reveal too much, but I adored this book. It's beautiful and heartbreaking; a tremendous love story. As with Shanghai Girls, it gets much better after the inciting incident - Peony's privileged, sheltered life is not of much interest. Fortunately, this doesn't last long. If you've read Snow Flower, there is not much new here in terms of Chinese culture (aside from a few notable things that I can't reveal), but the world is fascinating, as are the characters. I couldn't put it down and when I finally did, I was both satisfied and devastated.
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