A Flash of Water

The year is 1883.China is teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. In the countryside, antagonismagainst foreigners and missionaries is growing and the warlords are at large. Li Ling, a youngpeasant girl in China, flees to Malaya to escape being made a concubine to awarlord, only to find herself tricked into becoming a second wife to a rich manwith sadistic tendencies. Her life becomes intertwined with that of herrescuer, Shao Peng, in a Malaya that is rapidly transforming under Britishrule. A Flash of Waterfollows New Beginnings and together with Sweet Offerings and Bitter-SweetHarvest forms a quadrilogy, which traces the lives of one family against theturbulent political, economic and social changes in China and Malaya. The booksare complete in themselves.