Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author and the first inductee in Vroman’s Bookstore’s Authors Walk of Fame, will discuss and sign her new novel “Daughters of the Sun and Moon” on Tuesday, June 9, at Pasadena Presbyterian Church.
The 7 p.m. event coincides with the book’s publication day. It is ticketed, with each ticket including one copy of the novel handed out at check-in, according to the Vroman’s Bookstore event listing. A public book signing will follow the presentation. Vroman’s, which has hosted every See launch since her first book, is again the host.
The novel is set in post-Civil War Los Angeles in 1870 and centers on three Chinese women — Dove, Petal, and Moon — who arrive in the city under different circumstances and forge an unexpected friendship as they confront a society increasingly hostile toward them, according to the publisher’s description on the Vroman’s event page. The story leads into the “Night of Horrors,” a phrase used by historians and reproduced in the publisher’s description, for the October 24, 1871, mass killing of at least 17 Chinese residents by a mob in the city’s Chinatown. The Los Angeles Public Library and Britannica describe the episode as one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history.
See was born in Paris and grew up in Los Angeles, where she spent time with her father’s family in Chinatown, according to her official biography. Her 1995 nonfiction book “On Gold Mountain: The One Hundred Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family” traces the journey of her great-grandfather Fong See. Her novels include “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” “Shanghai Girls,” “Dreams of Joy” — which debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list — “The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane,” “The Island of Sea Women,” and “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women.”
Vroman’s Bookstore, founded in Pasadena in 1894 by Adam Clark Vroman, hosts more than 400 free community events annually, according to Pasadena Now’s coverage of the bookstore’s 130th anniversary in 2024. In 2014, on the bookstore’s 120th anniversary, See became the first author inducted into Vroman’s Authors Walk of Fame, placing her handprints and signature in the cement walkway between Vroman’s and the adjacent theater, according to LAist and Shelf Awareness coverage.
“Vroman’s Bookstore has hosted every launch since I first started out,” See wrote in a recent post on her official website. “This is truly a friends, fans, and family event. This time we’ll be at Pasadena Presbyterian. I hope you can come.”
The novel was named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Today.com and a Summer 2026 Staff Pick by Publishers Weekly, according to the publisher’s promotional materials. Library Journal, in a starred review reproduced on the publisher’s site, called it “a stunning piece of historical fiction based in truth.”
The hardcover, published by Scribner/Simon & Schuster, runs 384 pages and lists at $29.00 at Vroman’s. An audiobook narrated by See, Jennifer Lim, Quanna Luo Masterson, and Emily Woo Zeller is also being released.
Event details: Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 East Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena. Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 7 p.m. Ticketed; each ticket includes a copy of the book. A public signing follows the program. Questions: promo@vromansbookstore.com or (626) 449-5320. Tickets are sold through Eventbrite.
The book is published Tuesday. Tuesday is also when See will sign it — just west of the bookstore where her handprints have been on the sidewalk since 2014.
