In Little Sister: Searching for the Shadow World of Chinese Women, Julie Checkoway relives a year spent in a large, industrial, politically conservative Chinese city. She reveals the secret, traditional bonding of its women: fortification against a life as oppressive as it has ever been. Little Sister penetrates this hidden world to tell stories that are touching, harrowing, and compelling: the woman so desperate to leave China that she will do so as a mail-order bride; the woman who sacrifices romantic love for her Communist ideals; the woman who, during the Cultural Revolution, is forced to perform work that results in her disfigurement.Interwoven with the women's lives is the life of the author herself, her poignant memories of the mother, sisters, and grandmother she lost as a child - and, at last, a resolution of her grief. Read Less