Start gifting
Libro.fm for Business
Start a membership, get two free audiobooks
Almost ready!
In order to save audiobooks to your Wish List you must be signed in to your account.
Log in Create account
Shop the sale
In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day, shop our limited-time sale on bestselling audiobooks from April 22nd-28th. Donāt miss outāpurchases support your local bookstore!
Shop nowTies That Bind, Ties That Break
This audiobook uses AI narration.
Weāre taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreThird Sister in the Tao family, Ailin has watched her two older sisters go through the painful process of having their feet bound. In China in 1911, all the women of good families follow this ancient tradition. But Ailin loves to run away from her governess and play games with her male cousins. Knowing she will never run again once her feet are bound, Ailin rebels and refuses to follow this torturous tradition. As a result, however, the family of her intended husband breaks their marriage agreement. And as she enters adolescence, Ailin finds that her family is no longer willing to support her. Chinese society leaves few options for a single woman of good family, but with a bold conviction and an indomitable spirit, Ailin is determined to forge her own destiny. Her story is a tribute to all those women whose courage created new options for the generations who came after them.
Lensey Namioka was born in Beijing and moved to the United States when she was a child. She is a full-time writer, living in Seattle with her family.
Emily Woo Zeller is an Earphones award-winning audiobook narrator. After beginning her voiceover career with Asian animation, she returned to the United States and began narrating a broad spectrum of audiobook genres. Her multilingual, multicultural framework brings a particularly unique, clear-eyed, and intimate perspective to the Asian American narratives she specializes in.
Reviews
āPowerfully told in flashback, Ties that Bind, Ties that Break is a thoughtful exploration of the ways cultural pressures can bend not only our personal values but even our physical appearanceā¦Gripping, lyrical.ā
āAilinās reminiscences, used as narration, are simple and straightforward, and the discussions of foot-binding are startlingly effective.ā
ā[A] gripping historical novelā¦Her writing is so atmospheric and closely informed that it appears to offer an insiderās perspective on a vanished way of lifeā¦This colorful novel has the force and intensity of a memoir.ā
āNarrator Emily Woo Zeller inhabits her character wholly in this enlightening story of Ailin, a girl growing up in 1920s China. Zellerās subdued, controlled voice conveys the societal rules, both spoken and unspoken, for women during this period. In high contrast is nine-year-old Ailinās bold determination and defiance as she refuses to have her feet boundā¦Zellerās young voice, smooth reading, and facile pronunciation of Chinese names further complement the story.ā
āThe story vividly shows a culture just beginning to move away from its traditions; it also shows how a bright, young girl was able to assert her will and what she suffered from doing so. The narrator Emily Woo Zeller reads the story well, expressing Ailinās strong will in the beginning and her ultimate resignation to her fate, her estrangement from her family, and her adjustment to living with Westerners.ā
āSet against the backdrop of political unrest and social change, this novel provides a realistic window into turn-of-the-century Chinese cultureā¦great for recreational reading, this solid story will also work well in supplementing social-studies units.ā
Expand reviews