Adeline Yen Mah, “Falling Leaves: The True Story of an Unwanted Chinese Daughter”

Koury Center, 7:30 p.m.

Unfolding against the backdrop of social, political and cultural upheaval, Elon’s common reading for 2003-04, “Falling Leaves” recounts the dramatic, painful and ultimately triumphant story of Adeline Yen Mah’s journey into adulthood. The youngest child of a prosperous Chinese family, she was considered a burden by her family when her mother died two weeks after her birth. When her father remarried, she suffered appalling emotional abuse at the hands of her manipulative and cruel stepmother. Determined to survive, Yen Mah struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and a writer.

Sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum.