Paper Wife

The heartbreaking tale “Paper Wife” by Laila Ibrahim takes place in Southern China in 1923. It centers on Mei Ling, whose parents set up her marriage to a California widower. She had to pretend to be a paper wife, her husband’s first wife, to enter the nation. She adopts Siew, an orphan girl, and raises her while traveling.

She learns that her husband Chinn Kai Li, is a houseboy and not the prosperous merchant he had made her believe when she eventually makes it to San Francisco. The narrative of the novel focuses on Mei Ling’s hardships and her will to save Siew from a life of prostitution.