Sabrana dela 17: Tri kćeri gospođe Lijang

Mrs. Liang's Three Daughters (1969) is one of Pearl S. Buck's last and most mature novels. Set in mid-20th-century China, it follows the fate of a family torn apart by her husband's infidelity.

Mrs. Liang, a woman of dignified Confucian calm, leaves her husband when he takes a concubine and starts anew. She opens a prestigious restaurant in Shanghai and becomes financially independent. She sends her three daughters—Grace, Mercy, and Joy—to America for education, hoping to secure a future far from the turmoil that has descended upon China.

As communism takes over the country and the Cultural Revolution rages, each daughter chooses a different path: one returns to her mother, one stays in the West, and the third seeks her own path between the two worlds. Mrs. Liang stays in China, witnesses the changes, and protects her family as best she can. Buck once again writes of a woman who, abandoned by her husband, does not give in to grief—but acts; and about the splitting of family and home between the old and new worlds.