The story is, at times, a catalogue of one unhappy incident after another. The pain felt by Adeline is acute and permeates almost every scene in the book. In her life Adeline Yen Mah has been many things, a brilliant academic, doctor and a writer, yet it is the role of ‘unwanted daughter’ that plays heavily on her heart. The idea of an unwanted daughter, blamed for the death of her own mother, is a superstition that may have caused the abandonment of many. Adeline immerses herself in striving for academic achievement in the hope of winning favour, but also for its own rewards as she finds great pleasure in words and scholarly success. Denied love from her parents, she finds some solace in relationships with her grandfather Ye Ye, and her Aunt Baba, but they are taken from her. The book outlines Adeline’s struggle to find a place where she feels she belongs.

She displayed overt antagonism and distrust towards all of the children, particularly Adeline, whilst favoring her own younger son and daughter born soon after the marriage. This situation is compounded by her father’s new marriage to a lady who has little affection for her husband’s five children. Adeline’s mother died shortly after her birth due to complications bought on by the delivery, and in Chinese culture this marks her as cursed or ‘bad luck’ (p.3).

Born the fifth child to an affluent Chinese family her life begins tragically. This book is the moving autobiography of a young Chinese girl, Adeline Yen Mah.

Falling leaves mah