A mother's vanishing act and a daughter's desperate search for the truth collide across two continents and three decades, in a spellbinding saga where the only way to survive sometimes is to disappear.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate comes her stunning adult debut—a story so personal that the social post behind its inspiration drew 2.7 million views and 225,000 likes.
Rent new hardcover on Trove: $12.00 - Each rental copy can be rented for 30 days. If you love the book and decide to keep it, the remaining balance applies.
Buy new hardcover on Trove: $30.00
____________________________________________
About the book:
In 1940s Hong Kong, Ha Yut Ying escapes the Japanese invasion of her hometown by turning invisible—but her survival is only the beginning of her story. Sent to live with a distant father and glamorous stepmother, she's stripped of her dreams and forced into servitude, learning the hard way that some gifts are also curses.
Two decades later in San Francisco, Yut Ying's daughter Marigold watches her mother vanish before her eyes—and the fracture it leaves behind shapes Marigold's entire childhood. When her mother's health begins to fail, Marigold realizes she must unearth the secrets her mother buried in order to save her.
Moving between war-torn Hong Kong and 1960s San Francisco, Fishbone Cinderella traces one family's inherited magic, inherited pain, and the long road toward finally being seen. It's a story about the debts we carry from our mothers, and the grace it takes to lay them down.
You love multigenerational sagas that sweep across decades, oceans, and generations of women.
You're drawn into historical fiction that makes a setting feel lived-in, from 1940s wartime Hong Kong to 1960s San Francisco.
You want a book club pick that digs into the real, complicated terrain of mother-daughter relationships.
You're moved by stories of immigration and identity that offer a nuanced, deeply human window into Chinese and Chinese-American experience.
You enjoy folklore and magic used sparingly, as an emotional metaphor rather than the main event.
Pre-release readers are calling it elegant, immersive, and heart-wrenching:
Early readers describe Fishbone Cinderella as an elegantly written family drama that pulls you into a world of curses and the women strong enough to break them.
Booksellers have compared its rich, fifty-year portrait of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and San Francisco to genre classics like Spring Moon and Shanghai Girls, praising its watercolor-vivid prose.
Reviewers say Yut Ying's wartime storyline hits hardest, with the trauma of the Japanese invasion rendered so viscerally that the war itself feels like a character in its own right.
Advance readers describe finishing the novel emotionally gutted but comforted, moved by its unflinching look at generational trauma, immigration, and the ache of unlived lives.
About the author:
Elizabeth Lim is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including A Forgery of Fate, Six Crimson Cranes, and Spin the Dawn. A graduate of Harvard College and the Juilliard School, she grew up in Northern California and now lives in New York with her husband and daughters. Fishbone Cinderella marks her long-awaited debut for adult readers.
Publisher: Del Rey
Title: Fishbone Cinderella: A Novel
Author: Elizabeth Lim
On Sale Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN 13: 9798217092987
Format: Hardcover
Retail Price: $30.00 USD
BISAC: Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / Post-World War II (+2)
Page Count: 448 pages
Dimensions: 9.5 in H x 6.4 in W x 1.4 in T
Weight: 1.4 lb
A mother's vanishing act and a daughter's desperate search for the truth collide across two continents and three decades, in a spellbinding saga where the only way to survive sometimes is to disappear.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Forgery of Fate comes her stunning adult debut—a story so personal that the social post behind its inspiration drew 2.7 million views and 225,000 likes.
Rent new hardcover on Trove: $12.00 - Each rental copy can be rented for 30 days. If you love the book and decide to keep it, the remaining balance applies.
Buy new hardcover on Trove: $30.00
____________________________________________
About the book:
In 1940s Hong Kong, Ha Yut Ying escapes the Japanese invasion of her hometown by turning invisible—but her survival is only the beginning of her story. Sent to live with a distant father and glamorous stepmother, she's stripped of her dreams and forced into servitude, learning the hard way that some gifts are also curses.
Two decades later in San Francisco, Yut Ying's daughter Marigold watches her mother vanish before her eyes—and the fracture it leaves behind shapes Marigold's entire childhood. When her mother's health begins to fail, Marigold realizes she must unearth the secrets her mother buried in order to save her.
Moving between war-torn Hong Kong and 1960s San Francisco, Fishbone Cinderella traces one family's inherited magic, inherited pain, and the long road toward finally being seen. It's a story about the debts we carry from our mothers, and the grace it takes to lay them down.
You love multigenerational sagas that sweep across decades, oceans, and generations of women.
You're drawn into historical fiction that makes a setting feel lived-in, from 1940s wartime Hong Kong to 1960s San Francisco.
You want a book club pick that digs into the real, complicated terrain of mother-daughter relationships.
You're moved by stories of immigration and identity that offer a nuanced, deeply human window into Chinese and Chinese-American experience.
You enjoy folklore and magic used sparingly, as an emotional metaphor rather than the main event.
Pre-release readers are calling it elegant, immersive, and heart-wrenching:
Early readers describe Fishbone Cinderella as an elegantly written family drama that pulls you into a world of curses and the women strong enough to break them.
Booksellers have compared its rich, fifty-year portrait of Guangdong Province, Hong Kong, and San Francisco to genre classics like Spring Moon and Shanghai Girls, praising its watercolor-vivid prose.
Reviewers say Yut Ying's wartime storyline hits hardest, with the trauma of the Japanese invasion rendered so viscerally that the war itself feels like a character in its own right.
Advance readers describe finishing the novel emotionally gutted but comforted, moved by its unflinching look at generational trauma, immigration, and the ache of unlived lives.
About the author:
Elizabeth Lim is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of ten novels, including A Forgery of Fate, Six Crimson Cranes, and Spin the Dawn. A graduate of Harvard College and the Juilliard School, she grew up in Northern California and now lives in New York with her husband and daughters. Fishbone Cinderella marks her long-awaited debut for adult readers.
Publisher: Del Rey
Title: Fishbone Cinderella: A Novel
Author: Elizabeth Lim
On Sale Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN 13: 9798217092987
Format: Hardcover
Retail Price: $30.00 USD
BISAC: Fiction / Historical / 20th Century / Post-World War II (+2)
Page Count: 448 pages
Dimensions: 9.5 in H x 6.4 in W x 1.4 in T
Weight: 1.4 lb
