Wong is a solid writer, I admire her boldness for taking on such a comprehensive and arduous feat with great achievement, an authoress possessing immeasurable writing talent.

The peruser is given insight into Chinese culture which serves a large focus of the narrative.Īs much as I enjoyed the book the ending was a major letdown for me, it was obvious the direction the ending was taking, predictability ruinous. Wonderful historical aspects added to the setting and building blocks of both plot and characters. Kudos to Wong for exposing the calm and strength of the women serving as the cog of the narrative. Quite a narrative is weaved with intriguing female protagonists telling their version of events, family history, new revelations. Wong managed to pique my curiosity from the beginning, I couldn’t wait for secrets to be revealed, drama to unfold, betrayals discovered, the most unsuspecting exposed, motivations examined. One family cursed by fate or by their own agency, as the story unravels, tradition and culture delved, you consider the root cause of trials and tribulations this family suffered as well as endured. Told through the eyes of the Leong’s secret-keeping daughters and wives and spanning The Boxer Rebellion to Pearl Harbor to 1960s Hawaii, Diamond Head is a breathtakingly powerful tale of tragic love, shocking lies, poignant compromise, aching loss, heroic acts of sacrifice and, miraculous hope.Ĭecily Wong has accomplished one complex and intricate family saga. Now the Leong’s survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong’s only grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors’ punishing knots. Still, the island continues to whisper-fragmented pieces of truth and chatter, until a letter arrives two decades later, carrying a confession that shatters the family even further. Left to rebuild in their patriarch’s shadow, the surviving members of the Leong family try their hand at a new, ordinary life, vowing to bury their gilded past. When Frank is murdered, his family is thrown into a perilous downward spiral. The parable of the red string of fate, the cord which binds one intended beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love, passing a destructive knot down the family line. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them. A sweeping debut spanning China to Hawaii that follows four generations of a wealthy shipping family whose rise and decline is riddled with secrets and tragic love-from a young, powerful new voice in fictionĪt the turn of the nineteenth-century, Frank Leong, a fabulously wealthy shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of Oahu.

Diamond head by cecily wong