Dandelion
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 30 days of Premium Plus free
Buy Now for $22.94
-
Narrated by:
-
Jennifer Hui
-
Written by:
-
Jamie Chai Yun Liew
About this listen
When Lily was eleven years old, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family, never to be seen or heard from again. Now a new mother herself, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Swee Hua. She recalls the spring of 1987, growing up in a small British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families; Lily’s previously stateless father wanted to blend seamlessly into Canadian life, while her mother, alienated and isolated, longed to return to Brunei. Years later, still affected by Swee Hua’s disappearance, Lily’s family is stubbornly silent to her questioning. But eventually, an old family friend provides a clue that sends Lily to Southeast Asia to find out the truth.
Winner of the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop, Dandelion is a beautifully written and affecting novel about motherhood, family secrets, migration, isolation, and mental illness. With clarity and care, it delves into the many ways we define home, identity, and above all, belonging.
©2022 Jamie Chai Yun Liew (P)2022 Bespeak Audio EditionsYou may also enjoy...
-
A Two-Spirit Journey
- The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder (Critical Studies in Native History, Book 18)
- Written by: Ma-Nee Chacaby, Mary Louisa Plummer
- Narrated by: Marsha Knight
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall7
-
Performance6
-
Story6
A Two-Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism.
-
-
Riveting account of a very difficult life, resilience and triumph.
- By Bombersmama on 2025-04-18
Written by: Ma-Nee Chacaby, and others
-
The Secret Book Society
- A Novel
- Written by: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5
-
Performance4
-
Story4
A captivating new historical novel from Madeline Martin, set in Victorian London about a forbidden book club, dangerous secrets, and the women who dare to break free. You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society… London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations...
-
-
a must read
- By Jenniebean on 2025-11-22
Written by: Madeline Martin
-
The Keeper of Happy Endings
- Written by: Barbara Davis
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman, Hope Newhouse
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall45
-
Performance40
-
Story40
Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.
-
-
Lost in the story
- By Catherine Arkema on 2026-01-30
Written by: Barbara Davis
-
Rage the Night
- A Novel
- Written by: Donna Morrissey
- Narrated by: Jonathan Watton
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall7
-
Performance6
-
Story6
National Bestseller At once the intimate tale of one man's quest to discover the truth of his birth and a riveting account of a real-life Newfoundland tragedy from 1914, brilliantly and sensitively imagined by one of Canada's most beloved and bestselling authors. When a deathbed confession...
-
-
Honesty
- By paula macdonald on 2023-11-25
Written by: Donna Morrissey
-
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
- The Journals of Alice Walker
- Written by: Alice Walker, Valerie Boyd - editor
- Narrated by: Aunjanue Ellis, Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0
-
Performance0
-
Story0
From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and...
Written by: Alice Walker, and others
-
The Woo-Woo
- How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family
- Written by: Lindsay Wong
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall318
-
Performance286
-
Story287
In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on antipsychotic meds.
-
-
Unforgettable
- By Sierra Skye on 2018-11-28
Written by: Lindsay Wong
-
A Two-Spirit Journey
- The Autobiography of a Lesbian Ojibwa-Cree Elder (Critical Studies in Native History, Book 18)
- Written by: Ma-Nee Chacaby, Mary Louisa Plummer
- Narrated by: Marsha Knight
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall7
-
Performance6
-
Story6
A Two-Spirit Journey is Ma-Nee Chacaby’s extraordinary account of her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian. From her early, often harrowing memories of life and abuse in a remote Ojibwa community riven by poverty and alcoholism, Chacaby’s story is one of enduring and ultimately overcoming the social, economic, and health legacies of colonialism.
-
-
Riveting account of a very difficult life, resilience and triumph.
- By Bombersmama on 2025-04-18
Written by: Ma-Nee Chacaby, and others
-
The Secret Book Society
- A Novel
- Written by: Madeline Martin
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5
-
Performance4
-
Story4
A captivating new historical novel from Madeline Martin, set in Victorian London about a forbidden book club, dangerous secrets, and the women who dare to break free. You are cordially invited to the Secret Book Society… London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations...
-
-
a must read
- By Jenniebean on 2025-11-22
Written by: Madeline Martin
-
The Keeper of Happy Endings
- Written by: Barbara Davis
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman, Hope Newhouse
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall45
-
Performance40
-
Story40
Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.
-
-
Lost in the story
- By Catherine Arkema on 2026-01-30
Written by: Barbara Davis
-
Rage the Night
- A Novel
- Written by: Donna Morrissey
- Narrated by: Jonathan Watton
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall7
-
Performance6
-
Story6
National Bestseller At once the intimate tale of one man's quest to discover the truth of his birth and a riveting account of a real-life Newfoundland tragedy from 1914, brilliantly and sensitively imagined by one of Canada's most beloved and bestselling authors. When a deathbed confession...
-
-
Honesty
- By paula macdonald on 2023-11-25
Written by: Donna Morrissey
-
Gathering Blossoms Under Fire
- The Journals of Alice Walker
- Written by: Alice Walker, Valerie Boyd - editor
- Narrated by: Aunjanue Ellis, Walker, Janina Edwards
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall0
-
Performance0
-
Story0
From National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize–winning author Alice Walker and edited by critic and writer Valerie Boyd, comes an unprecedented compilation of Walker’s fifty years of journals drawing an intimate portrait of her development over five decades as an artist, human rights and...
Written by: Alice Walker, and others
-
The Woo-Woo
- How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family
- Written by: Lindsay Wong
- Narrated by: Eunice Wong
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall318
-
Performance286
-
Story287
In this jaw-dropping, darkly comedic memoir, a young woman comes of age in a dysfunctional Asian family whose members blamed their woes on ghosts and demons when in fact they should have been on antipsychotic meds.
-
-
Unforgettable
- By Sierra Skye on 2018-11-28
Written by: Lindsay Wong
What the critics say
“In Dandelion, a woman struggles to understand the mysterious disappearance of her own mother while on the brink of motherhood herself. Rich in imagery detailing the immigrant experience, Jamie Chai Yun Liew’s debut novel picks at the open wound of diasporic displacement with tenderness and compassion.” — Catherine Hernandez, author of Scarborough and Crosshairs
“Jamie Chai Yun Liew’s Dandelion is a poignant portrayal of a woman’s coming of age as a Chinese immigrant trying to set down roots in a small town in British Columbia. In a story relatable to many, as Lily grows up, she awakens to the beauty and brutality of her home in Canada. Meanwhile, her mother retreats and finally leaves, unable to cope with the changing family dynamics of their new life. Dandelion invites readers to imagine multi-generational loss, gain, and love in a fresh take on the mother-daughter narrative. It is at once comfortable and unsettling, raw, and tender.” — Carrianne Leung, author of The Wondrous Woo and That Time I Loved You
“With finely wrought observations and complex characters, Liew captures the subtle nuances of immigration, race, belonging, diaspora, and what it means to be Other. Dandelion is an important debut.” — Lindsay Wong, author of The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family
cultural Canadiana
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Performer's reading voice was not my favourite
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.