Healing a Devastated Life

At a time when China is so often in the news and increasingly portrayed as an emerging threat to the West, Chinese-Canadian author Yan Li, who has a foot in both countries, offers a fresh perspective. Her newest novel, by turns candid and tender, tragic and comical, chronicles the travails of new Chinese immigrants in small-town Ontario.

The title, Lily in the Snow, for the three Chinese characters that make up the heroine’s name, aptly describes a cast of characters who, having transplanted themselves from rich old soil, strive to take root in a cold new land. What sustains Lily, a seemingly meek and docile creature who routinely defers to others, including a harsh and tyrannical mother newly arrived from Beijing for a visit, is the hidden strength she draws from faith. Not from a god or a religion, although her curious, questing mind is graced with an unerring instinct for the commonalities that bind all humans. Rather, Lily’s belief, her faithfulness and...