She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
She Who Became the Sun is the debut novel from Asian Australian writer Shelley Parker-Chan. An extraordinary hybrid between historical fiction and epic fantasy, this accomplished book is set in China during the fall of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century. This story of a peasant girl who assumes the identity of her dead brother to escape starvation, and ends up leading a rebel army against the ruling Mongols, is an engrossing, challenging and wildly compulsive read. Populated throughout with real historical people and events, She Who Became the Sun reminds me of some of the best works of Western historical fantasy – Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles – while simultaneously revealing how untapped the rich history and mythologies of China are.
Parker-Chan has a professional grounding in gender equality and LGBT rights, and they’ve woven these themes seamlessly into She Who Became the Sun. By making Zhu Chongba (the actual, real-life founder of China’s legendary Ming dynasty) an unapologetically ambitious queer woman in disguise, Parker-Chan upends the stereotypes around Asian women. By placing the formidable eunuch-general Ouyang in opposition to Zhu, Parker-Chan further blurs the expectations around gender roles.
At the heart of She Who Became the Sun is the corruptive nature of power and the sacrifices that must be made by those who hold it. Zhu is a fascinating, witty, multi-layered character who does some terrible things in her pursuit for power. Her journey from starving peasant girl, to warrior monk, to one of history’s most influential, enlightened and notoriously ruthless leaders is brilliantly imagined. I didn’t know much about this period of history (in this part of the world at least) beforehand, but I’m eager to learn more now.
