It was my Social Studies teacher who first told me about Chinese Cinderella, an autobiographical bestseller by Adeline Yen Mah, who, although a physician by training, is now a full-time author living in California. Intrigued by the title, I tried everything possible to obtain a copy of the book, but all my efforts were in vain as Chinese Cinderella was proving to be such a success that it was out of stock in all major Mauritian bookshops! Finally, one morning, when I was near to giving up, a friend of mine announced that she possessed a copy of the much longed-for book, and readily agreed to let me borrow it?

Chinese Cinderella is the heart-wrenching story of an unwanted daughter from the time of the foreign concessions to the rise of Communist China and the commercial boom of Hong Kong. Rejection, violence, discrimination and abuse, Adeline survived through it all and, although now an adult, inside she is still the same little child yearning for her parents? love. Chinese Cinderella brings back vivid images of her early childhood and lingers in the mind long after it is put down.

Adeline never saw her mother?s face. The latter died while giving birth to her and her father ordered that all her photographs be destroyed. Soon after, Adeline?s father remarried a beautiful but cruel woman, Jeanne Prosperi Yen, who made Adeline?s life a misery until her death in 1990. Adeline was discriminated against because she was a girl, turned into a scapegoat by her brothers, spurned by her elder sister, whipped for daring to attend a classmate's birthday party against her stepmother?s wishes and was always either tormented or completely ignored. In fact, Adeline was so much of a nobody that her own father couldn?t even recall her date of birth!!!

To escape from the loneliness of her childhood, Adeline read and wrote. In high school, she won an international play-writing contest, as a result of which her father finally agreed to send her to college in England to become a medical doctor.

And thus Chinese Cinderella, published by Puffin, recounts the atrocities committed by Adeline?s parents - her painful separation from her beloved Aunt Baba, her pet duckling?s tragic death and Big Sister?s wedding to a man nearly twice her age. A moving, unforgettable story, written in a simplistic yet gripping way, recommended to children and adults alike?

NB: Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah is published by Puffin Books and is available at all the main bookshops.

Nikhita OBEEGADOO 11 years old