A powerful novel about exile, and the desire of a woman to break the chain of abandonment and violence suffered by her lineage…

Tahiti, 1926. Beneath a sprawling banyan tree, a mother whispers her life story to the unborn daughter about to enter the world.

Shǔ’s journey spans decades: raised in 19th-century China by a fiercely independent mother, bound by an arranged marriage to a man who valued her mind, and suddenly abandoned when political turmoil forced him to flee across the ocean. Left alone with her firstborn child, Shǔ relied on sheer grit to survive—driven by the unshakeable faith that her husband was waiting for her in Tahiti.

At the heart of this literary saga lies the timeless sacrifice of migration. Shǔ’s story echoes across generations and borders—a poignant testament to everything women are forced to leave behind, and the fierce resilience required to plant new roots in unfamiliar soil.

The Lake Without Shores is a luminous, heart-wrenching epic of exile, resilience, and the enduring cost of migration. Sweeping from China’s mud-brick fortresses to the holds of a Pacific ocean liner, this saga unfolds with an evocative, incantatory prose that reads like a spellbinding—and often perilous—fairy tale.

From mud-brick fortresses to the hold of an ocean liner sailing the Pacific, The Lake Without Shores, a powerful and luminous epic about forced exile, is brought to life by an evocative, incantatory prose. It reads like a fairy tale—by turns wondrous, cruel, and heart-wrenching.

Marie Aline has origins in Tahiti’s Chinese community. A former journalist, she gathered personal accounts, historical facts, and researched  anthropological data to inform the writing of The Lake Without Shores.  This is her second novel.