Events - Event View

In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep. When Li-yan has a baby out of wedlock she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city.

As Li-yan comes into herself, leaving her village for an education, a business, and city life, her daughter, Haley, is raised in California by loving adoptive parents. Despite her privileged childhood, Haley wonders about her origins. Across the ocean Li-yan longs for her lost daughter. Over the course of years, each searches for meaning in the study of Pu’er, the tea that has shaped their family’s destiny for centuries.

Meeting Location. The February Book Club will again gather in the meeting room of RiverPlace Apartments, located at 1 RiverPlace Dr., La Crosse, which is adjacent to International Friendship Gardens. Participants should enter through the front entrance and press "18" on the entryway intercom. Parking is available in front of the building or in the International Friendship Gardens parking lot in back.

Registration.  Although registration for this in-person meeting will not be required, participants are encouraged to register if they wish to receive an event reminder as well as any potential updates to meeting information.