A really good story about family, love, secrets and lies. This is an interesting read.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book tells of the mystery surrounding a Chinese family using the past and present perspectives of the ma, the older sister fostered out when a young child and the young Amy, brought up by her birth parents but feels overshadowed by her brilliant attractive older sister Sylvie. The two sisters share a strong bond of love and interdependence although each harbouring resentments related to their intrinsic upbringings and insecurities over which of them is loved the most. Then Sylvie goes missing on a visit to her dying grandmother and the past comes back to haunt this fractured family. Amy retraces her sisters movements, shedding the shy introverted personality that has thwarted her whole life, and as events are revealed by the three protagonists the long buried secret is slowly revealed. Along the way we learn with a subtle light touch of Chinese family traditions. The difficulties and unconscious racism experienced by immigrants struggling to survive in an alien environment . How love and jealousy co exist in extended families with far reaching effects for the multi generational offspring living under a secret cloud of which they are totally a aware. Unusual, carefully written with such knowledge and tenderness it begins to feels like a haunting melody of a lost and troubled family. Really enjoyed this most unusual book on many levels.

Sylvie Lee is missing having travelled to the Netherlands to attend her grandmother’s funeral. Her younger sister Amy, always in thrall of her has to begin the search, leaving her Chinese parents behind in New York.
While there were some interesting episodes in this book, ultimately, I found it disappointing. Characterisation was adequate, especially Amy and her cousin’s wife, Helena but the plot, was ponderous. Some reviewers have commented on how much they liked the Chinese sayings interjected in Ma’s narrative and elsewhere but I’m afraid I found them distracting, in the same way the Dutch sayings didn’t work either. I was especially surprised by the badly written newspaper ‘articles’ too.
Interesting insights into Chinese culture in places but nothing like Celeste Ng’s books – where the pressure on second generation Chinese in the USA is fully explored.
Thanks to Net Galley and John Murray Press for allowing me to read and review this book.

Thanks to John Murray Press and Net Galley for the ARC of Searching for Sylvie.
Beautifully documented and profound in the descriptions of loss and grief in the Chinese culture, giving the reader a taste of the life and struggles of a child raised in one country then expected to fit into another with family traditions that are alien to where they live. The characters are finely drawn, their beliefs and traditions driving the story. The author keeps the reader guessing until the last and the ending is heart-breaking.

Quite a complex and intense book with a background in Chinese culture and family life. It wasn't one that i found easy to read but the story line was pretty good and the secrets when they came out.

Very descriptive novel with well written characters. Interesting snippets of Chinese culture and sayings. The story is drip fed slowly and makes for compelling reading.My thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, the locations and the imagery used were beautiful. I loved the language used by the older Chinese generation to describe things, it was a real joy to read words written in this way.

Thanks for allowing me to review this book

I can’t fault this book, it draws you in to the lives of two Chinese sisters, their family and their secrets. It’s impossible to guess what’s happened, what’s going on or what’s going to happen. The characters were all well written, and I really enjoyed learning just a little about Chinese culture and sayings at the same time as being involved in an absorbing mystery - what happened to Sylvie Lee?? Read it and find out!

Amy has lived in New York all her life, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, they have managed to make a life for themselves. Sylvia her sister was sent to the Netherlands for eight years to be brought up by cousins, their son Lucas and her maternal grandmother. When she returned, being older than Amy, she felt responsible for protecting her from life in New York and the prejudice of the people who lived there.
Years later when her Grandmother is dying Sylvia returns to Amsterdam never dreaming of the secrets that have been hidden. After her Grandmother dies Sylvia disappears and Amy flys over determined to find her sister.
An interesting an intriguing web of events looks at the dynamics of an extended Chinese family, their traditions and the problems they encounter as immigrant families in Europe and America.

* spoiler alert ** 3.75 stars

I really enjoyed this book,up to a point.

The multiple narrative worked really Well,and I got a good feeling for each of the characters.
I felt sorry for Sylvie,who on the face of things is in control,successful,wealthy,but in reality is just lost... and her only love seems to be for Amy.
As I got further drawn into those book,I wshs suspicious of everyone... what did they know? Why were they acting so oddly? Where was Sylvie?
Then came the ending,the point at which FOR ME it felt a bit too much like a soap opera and I felt a bit disappointed that's how we ended.

I enjoyed this book. Cleverly written, you could tell which character narrates each chapter by their distinct voices.

It’s quite slow moving, but more information is revealed in tiny amounts to keep you guessing. I did not guess the ending!

I enjoyed learning some of the cultural aspects and would seek out further books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I enjoyed reading this. I liked the clash of cultures and points of view - Chinese, Dutch and American, and the interesting vocabulary that was inserted here and there eg. the beautiful country, long instead of tall, etc. The characters are well defined and believable, and one or two of them are harbouring secrets. The weakest character is Jim, who just fades away at the end, and some of the storylines are a little contrived. I was disappointed when it was revealed what had happened to Sylvie, because it turned it into a mystery/thriller genre which it shouldn't have been. However, I thought it quirky and original.

Sylvie Lee is a young women of Chinese origin who has disappeared in the Netherlands after going back there to tend to her terminally ill grandmother. She is a complicated character who has had an unusual life. Taken to the Netherlands when she was 2 to be looked after by her grandmother, she is resentful of her parents who she thinks don''t love her. This feeling is made worse when she is wrenched back to the USA at the age of 11 and ends up looking after her little sister Amy. In spite of these setbacks she does exceptionally well at school and university and has a high flying job and a rich husband. But when she disappears in the Netherlands it turns out that her life is not quite what it seems.

I enjoyed this book. The characterisation was good and there was clear distinction between the voices of the three female narrators.. The descriptions of the setting and culture of the Netherlands was excellent and I particularly liked this. What I wasn't so sure about was the denouement of the book. I wasn't convinced by what happened to Sylvie and feel that it didn't ring true to her psychology. Other than that I enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Really compelling story that kept me turning the pages constantly - I read this in one sitting. The three points of view from members of the same family were fascinating as was the different settings and cultures. Really enjoyed this one.

This was a beautifully written book that gripped me from the start. It explores a lot of different topics in a seamless and interesting way. I enjoyed the story being told from different viewpoints and I found the story to be absorbing.

I wanted to like this but found it too mawkish and sentimental for my tastes. Perhaps it was because I didn't warm to any of the major characters, except forAmy, the younger sister searching for the truth about Sylvie. I actively disliked all the men in the story, and that caused me to lose engagement.
Certainly the settings were picturesque, detailed and often poetic - I enjoyed the descriptions of locations in the Netherlands and Venice. The cultural background was also interesting, but ultimately, the plot needed me to care about the outcomes for the characters, and I just didn't. I was pretty disappointed in the ending for Jim too = he deserved a literary comeuppance!

Beautifully written family drama driven mystery, which meditates on the ties that bind siblings and children and parents. It raises important questions surrounding immigration including racism and attitudes to discrimination. The setting was excellent and I loved the gradual increase of tension. The ending didn’t quite work for me but that’s a personal preference.

Beautifully written book wasn’t sure at first that I would like it but I thoroughly enjoyed it I loved all the characters apart from Helena who I couldn’t take to at all. The story was about family love and how devastating it must be to have someone missing and not know where they are and all the trauma they went through. I would never have guessed the ending which was brilliant.

I can’t really place this novel as it transcends several genres. It’s essentially a family drama wrapped in with papers of racism, identity and a sense of belonging with a thread of mystery throughout it. The ribbon around this literary parcel however is one of language. This is a novel about communication on so many levels….

Sylvie is of Chinese descent who lived in the Netherlands until about ten years old so she speaks Dutch. She is living in New York when she flies back to Amsterdam to attend to her Grandmother when she is sick. That’s the last her family hear from her and so the mystery begins. Amy, a family member, flies over to Amsterdam to try and find her.

It’s in Amsterdam that the story is centered as Amy is introduced to her distant family members; some of whom she’s never met before. There’s so much material to explore here. Not only is there the mystery and fear of having someone you love go missing, and in a relatively strange country, but you have to go there and try to find her whilst also meeting your own family for the first time. I couldn’t imagine what Amy was going through - the fear, the sense of loss, the fear of feeling stranded and alone. Imagine trying to find someone without the authorities help and trying to do it with family but people you don’t know if you can trust.

The overriding theme is one of trust and communication - both the cultural divide in the number of languages involved in the novel, and the sense that this may be one family, but no one really tries to talk to one another. There is no family connection, no links between them and this is sad to read about.

Slyvie's disappearance is marred in mystery and her behaviour before she even left is worrying. The story is then able to look into how cultural changes and immigrants moving to another country can have problems other people never think about. The entire family seem adrift and have been on the receiving end of racism in both the US and the Netherlands. The more Amy searches for answers, the more she realises how little she knows of her sister.

A really interesting novel and I particularly loved the use of language, Dutch sayings and the mix of the various cultural influences.

How well do we know others, even those in our own family? Makes you think.

I really enjoyed this book as it was so unusual. The story is gripping, and completely unexpected. What I loved best though was the juxtaposition of the lives of the family members in the US, and the Netherlands. It gave an interesting insight into Dutch life, and especially the experience of ethnic minorities in the Netherlands. I also liked the writing style, and the very different voices of the characters. All in all a very compelling book.