Manchu Palaces

A rich and nuanced portrait of eighteenth-century China...a magical book.<br>Delia Sherman<p> Gently intriguing brilliantly detailed...Lotus's singular story of enlightenment involving a statue of the goddess Tara and the secret of a mandala is the radiant center of these diversions. <br><i>Publishers Weekly</i><p> A luminous self-contained fluid world in which history legend and religious quest create a portrait of an age- the glittering high noon of the Manchu Empire...An exemplary novelist again makes history a playful parade of personalities period details and ordinary people conscripted by the times.<br><i>Kirkus Review</i><p> Both educational and thoroughly enjoyable. <br>Nancy Pearl <i>Booklist</i>