The Secret of the Nightingale Palace
The Secret of the Nightingale Palace by Dana Sachs is the poignant story of an estranged grandmother and granddaughter and a secret that ties them together.
After her husband dies from leukemia, Anna agrees to help hard-to-please Goldie to bring a collection of valuable Japanese art from New York to California. Harboring a decades-old secret that could change Anna's life forever, Goldie must learn to let go of her past so her granddaughter can move on and discover happiness and love.
With a narrative that alternates between early 1940s San Francisco and the present day, The Secret of the Nightingale Palace is a beautiful story about the enduring power of love and family.
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Dana Sachs is the author of the novel If You Lived Here and two books of nonfiction, The House on Dream Street: Memoir of an American Woman in Vietnam and The Life We Were Given: Operation Babylift, International Adoption, and the Children of War in Vietnam. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, she lives in Wilmington, North Carolina, with her husband and two sons.
"This is Dana Sachs's best yet. THE SECRET OF THE NIGHTINGALE PALACE is a charming story, beautifully told. Her prose puts one in mind of the Japanese prints she writes about: colorful, spare, and evocative." -- George Bishop, author of Letter to My Daughter
"Dana Sachs's beautifully written novel, The Secret of the Nightingale Palace, is so pitch perfect that you'll be sad when it's over. A gifted storyteller, Sachs has created a multi-generational page-turner that will keep you reading late into the night. Brilliant!" -- Celia Rivenbark, author of You Don't Sweat Much for a Fat Girl
"Sachs' latest is so beautiful in every aspect that readers will have difficulty pinpointing the best parts. Rich in San Francisco history with brilliant characters you'll warm up to, the two different storylines will enrapture you as well....Elegant and tasteful, this novel is not to be missed." -- RT Book Reviews (top pick)
"As with most well-crafted literary journeys, it's not really about the destination, but this one does feature a sweetly surprising, cinematically styled twist at the end of the road. An ideal recommendation for the book-club set." -- Booklist
"[A] satisfying story...Goldie's lesson to her granddaughter becomes obvious: we must move past our losses to "make out own parties." I won't give away the twist at the end but will say every time I think of teh way Goldie made her own party, I smile." -- Historical Novels Review
"[A] graceful exploration of the human heart. With her signature elegance, she examines the burden of family secrets and how the complexities of culture can both divide and unite at the same time... this hypnotic, satisfying novel will linger in your thoughts long after you finish the last page." -- Kim Fay, author of The Map of Lost Memories
"Old-fashioned in the best of ways, this story of a grandmother and granddaughter-revisiting the past in order to chart the future-has all the romantic elegance of the '62 Silver Cloud in which they zoom across the country." -- Michael Lowenthal, author of The Paternity Test and Charity Girl
"Sachs takes us from fury to laughter and loss to healing as the true value of a Japanese treasure is finally revealed." -- Pamela Schoenewaldt, author of WHEN WE WERE STRANGERS
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