In Anchee Min's internationally bestselling Empress Orchid., a small-town woman rises to power through sexual seduction and even murder to become Empress of China. In the stand-alone sequel, The Last Empress, Min chronicles Orchid's rule as she raises two sons to be emperors and confronts the Boxer Rebellion. Min provides a vivid, copiously researched portrait of a flawed yet utterly compelling woman who survived in a male world, a woman who heroically struggled to hold a falling empire together for more than fifty years and also struggled to maintain her own humanity.