Anchee Min, Empress Orchid

You’ve heard of China’s last emperor, the boy king toppled from the throne by the rise of Mao. Now, meet his mother, the last empress. Becoming Madame Mao and Red Azalea author Min returns with another wonderfully descriptive work, the first in an eventual trilogy about Tzu Hsi, China’s longest-reigning female ruler. Min aims to rehabilitate Tsu Hsi’s historical reputation as a power-seizing schemer, which she sees as an unjust slander based on misogyny. Instead, she gives us a sympathetic portrait of the lower-level concubine who used brains and beauty to rise to the rank of the emperor’s closest advisor and mother of his heir—and upon his death in a coup, head of the Chi’ing Dynasty for forty-six years. It’s a deft combination of historical research and storytelling skill. The best part? This particular glimpse into pre-Westernized Asia doesn’t involve Tom Cruise. Min reads at the Fitzgerald April 20.