Four Treasures of the Sky (Zhang Jenny Tinghui); Penguin, 2023

Daiyu was named after a ghost . . .

Little Daiyu is twelve when her parents disappear. So she runs, disguising herself as a boy, to sweep the steps of Master Wang's calligraphy school in Zhifu.

But this is just the beginning of a journey that sends her across an ocean to San Francisco and the lawless American west.

Kidnapped. Trafficked. Betrayed.

Prize virgin in a brothel.

Passion. Revenge. Freedom.

A woman in a man's world.

Daiyu fears her name is a curse on her life.

But what if it might yet set her free?