China Doll [Paperback]

Talia Carner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 20, 2006

A riveting journey to save one life. An American music icon, Nola Sands is on a concert tour in China when a baby is thrust into her arms. Resolved to save the infant from death in a Chinese orphanage, Nola finds herself on a collision course with her husband/manager, with her record label company's interests in China-and with the world's two superpowers determined to silence her. In a story of an adoptive parent's unwavering love, Nola's flight across China is a tale not only of human rights abuses running amok in an astonishingly picturesque land: It is the gripping self-discovery voyage of a woman coming into her own.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Against both the timeless beauty and cutthroat attitudes that pervade China, Carner has created a page-turning, globe-spanning adventure." --Annie Blachley, Correspondent, The Los Angeles Times,

"Spicy and worldly, a journey through the intrigues of Chinese-American relations, corporate greed, and pop world machinations." --Susan Anderson, Author, "From Abandonment to Healing" and “Black Swan.”

"My arm longing to hold every child in China Doll's impassioned pages." --Wendy Reid Crisp, Author, “I Want To Be 60” and “From the Back Pew.”

From the Publisher

In addition to interviewing officers of the U.S. National Security Administration, State Department, CIA and Foreign Service, Ms. Carner’s research for CHINA DOLL included traveling in China and speaking with women—university professors, industry directors, aging peasants and budding entrepreneurs—about their customs and apprehensions. She learned how, generation after generation, due to either lingering starvation, the social experiment of the cultural revolution, or the current sacrifice under the one-child policy, they have been losing their baby girls through coercion, prejudice, neglect—and outright murder.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Windsprint Press; 1 edition (September 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977382125
• ISBN-13: 978-0977382125
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,120,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author Talia Carner's heart-wrenching suspense novels, PUPPET CHILD and CHINA DOLL, were hailed for exposing society's ills. Her newset novel, JERUSALEM MAIDEN, (HarperCollins, June 2011) depicts a woman's struggle for self-expression against her society's religious dictates.

Carner's reviews of others' books can be found at http://amzn.to/q3SBqc .

Her award-winning personal essays appeared in The New York Times, Chocolate For Women anthologies [Simon & Schuster], Cup of Comfort [Adams Media] and The Best Jewish Writing 2003 (John Wiley & Son). Her short stories were published in literary magazines such as Midstream, Lynx Eye, River Sedge, Moxie, Lilith, Rosebud, Confrontation and North Atlantic Review. An excerpt from JERUSALEM MAIDEN was named second (tie) for Eric Hoffer Short Prose Award, appeared in The Best New Writing 2011 as "Editor's Choice Award," and nominated to the Pushcart Prize.

JERUSALEM MAIDEN won the Forward National Literature Award in historical fiction category (Nov. 2011).

Before turning to writing fiction full-time, Carner worked for Redbook magazine, was the publisher of Savvy Woman magazine, and founded a successful marketing consulting firm servicing Fortune 500 companies. She taught at Long Island University's School of Management and was a volunteer counselor and lecturer for the Small Business Administration. In 1993 she was sent twice by the United States Information Agency to Russia, and in 1995 participated in the NGO women's conference in Beijing.

Her addictions include chocolate, ballet, Sudoku--and social justice.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazingly Close to Real, July 13, 2008

By 

Kay Bratt - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: China Doll (Paperback)

I worked in a Chinese orphanage for over four years and can tell you that reading this story put me back in the middle of all the emotions and outrage I dealt with on a daily basis. Many people think that negative stories about orphanages shouldn't be written, that they can't be that bad---but the truth is that some of them are that bad. The more that people open their eyes at what is really happening, the better chance at improving conditions we will have. Awareness is the key.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Painstaking research; painful message, September 15, 2006

By 

Susan O'Neill (Andover, MA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: China Doll (Paperback)

With China Doll, Talia Carner, late of Puppet Child, is once again advocating for children--this time, on a global stage. Literally. Her heroine Nola, a singer at the peak of her game, is sweeping through major Chinese cities on a goodwill tour with full entourage and spare-no-expense staging, when a shadowy figure thrusts a baby girl into her arms. Nola struggles to keep the child, battling the ghosts of her past and the very real and powerful spectres of her management and global politics.

Like Puppet Child, this book had me thoroughly engrossed, turning pages into the wee hours of the night. Also, like Puppet Child, it opened a door into the institutionalized mistreatment of children--this time, in Chinese "dying rooms," where drugged orphans languish until they are no longer in need of the scant care on offer.

Carner has done her homework here. Her research shapes and enhances the story, but her passion for justice brings it alive. This is accessible but important fiction that highlights both the simple ethics governing the life and death of children, and the political dance between China and the US that makes solutions to an archaic system of neglect so tragically, heartbreakingly complicated.

In both her novels, Talia Carner speaks for the children. Let us hope that someone of influence is listening.

Susan O'Neill, author, Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Page turning read, June 27, 2009

By 

Lisa J. Lanzkowsky (Port Washington, New York USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: China Doll (Paperback)

I must admit that I had very little knowledge of the orphanage situation in China until recently. From the moment I began reading Talia's Carners book I was drawn in. She does a fantastic job describing the dreaded situation that is evident from her research and developing a riveting storyline whose characters are very real in human nature, the Good and the evil. Her beautiful use of language paints a sad but necessary picture of the crisis in the orphanges that left me sickened but also inspired me to jump in and want to make a difference to help these children.