Generous Orchid

When Annabelle leaves Covington, Kentucky, she believes she is following her husband's calling. Tientsin, China is meant to be a place of purpose, of teaching and shaping young lives. Instead, it becomes the place where she learns how fragile belief can feel when the ground beneath it is shaking.

Sunsoo has never been free to dream. Bound to a husband consumed by violence and power, she lives in the tightening grip of the Boxer Revolution, where loyalty is demanded and mercy is dangerous. Faith, if it exists at all, is like a seed hidden beneath scorched soil.

As revolution ignites and the black plague steals what is most precious, two women from opposite sides of the world find themselves drawn together. Across language, culture, and suffering, Annabelle and Sunsoo form a friendship that defies fear and tradition, offering one another something neither expected: the possibility of hope.

Generous Orchid is a sweeping historical novel of loss and courage, where faith is tested in fire and friendship becomes an act of quiet rebellion in a world coming undone.

Suzanne Eller is a bestselling nonfiction author who has always had a secret love of fiction. She started dishing out chapters on Substack this past year. This debut novel may be a sweet surprise to her readers, but it is a decades-long dream unfolding for Suzie.