In British Malay (now Singapore) in the early 20th Century, young woman are routinely taken advantage of as mui tsai. Mui tsai (‘little sisters’) are young women and girls, ‘adopted’ into families as indentured servants. In The House of Little Sisters, we follow sixteen-year-old Ah Mei as she is sold to the Lee household. As she uncovers the horrors of the past she works to find a way to gain her freedom and be with the man she loves.

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As International Women’s Day approaches, it’s the perfect time to discover the stories of women from all over the world, and from all different eras. Set during a pivotal moment in history, The House of Little Sisters does such a fantastic job of both humanising real people’s stories while still giving a sense of the wider perspective and the sheer numbers of people affected. It reminded me of The Girl with the Louding Voice with its simultaneous focus on an individual woman’s empowerment and the wider systemic changes needed for the liberation of all.

Eva Wong Nava does a fantastic job of portraying the complexity of people, showing how the society we grow up in shapes our perspectives and sometimes blinds us to either our own oppression or our own privilege. And on top of all that, she has written a wonderfully engaging and immersive historical fiction. What more could you want?

Thank you to Love Books Tours for providing me with a free copy in exchange for a review.