Bi Feiyu is reportedly inundated with interview requests from journalists every March asking him to comment on women's issues (March 8 is the International Women's Day). And why not? The author has been referred to by many as "China's best male writer on the female psyche." If his novel, Three Sisters, wins this year's Man Asian Literary Prize – coincidentally an event also occurring in March – Bi will be extra busy fielding interview requests this month.

The female psyches depicted in Three Sisters back up the author's reputation. The book focuses on the Wang family, whose patriarch Wang Lianfang is the Party secretary for his village, a father to seven daughters and, last but not least, a philanderer. The book opens just as his wife is about to give birth to her eighth child, a boy. To Wang, "...[W]omen were external factors, like farmland, temperature, and soil condition, while a man's seed was the essential ingredient. Good seed produced boys; bad seed produced girls. Although he'd never admit it, when he looked at his seven daughters his self-esteem suffered." But Bi's novel looks past Wang's supposed suffering, fixating instead on the trials faced by his daughters Yumi, Yuxiu and Yuyang. Each crisply articulates how sex and power are intertwined, and how women often pay for the sins of men.

Wang Lianfang's adultery is a badly hidden secret in the family's village. He sleeps with nearly every woman around, until he's caught with the wife of another Party member who also happens to be a soldier on active duty. The discovery leads to Wang losing both his job and his Party membership; he's effectively ostracized from village life. It's his eldest daughter Yumi, third eldest Yuxiu, and youngest daughter Yuyang, though, who suffer most from the fallout of their father's stupidity.

Not long after Wang topples from grace, the villagers take their revenge by ruining his daughters' prospects for marriage. With quick brush strokes, Bi paints a terrifying scene wherein Yuxiu is raped repeatedly. While the emotional trauma is palpable on the page, what is unexpected is how far-reaching the event becomes. At the time, her older sister Yumi is engaged to an aviator, "slated to have a brighter future than any of [the other villagers]." Yumi's husband-to-be breaks the marriage off by letter from afar, asking in an accusatory tone, "Tell me, did someone take you to bed?"

As Yumi's story continues and she heads into a marriage with a less desirable man (albeit one that can provide her with power), Bi switches gears to focus on Yuxiu. The third eldest of her siblings, she is in constant conflict with Yumi but also cognizant of how much she needs her older sister. Yuxiu's personality is that of "a little fox fairy, a seductive girl." She tries to keep using these qualities to her advantage even though "[she] suddenly had a clear picture of exactly who she was. As a female, her value had dropped to virtually nothing... For her, the future held only despair and misery with no tears to shed." After life in the village becomes intolerable, Yuxiu moves to the town where Yumi is living with her new family. From there, her story takes many twists and turns; hers is Three Sisters' most gripping portrait, with an end that should not be revealed in a review.

Yuyang's story is somewhat separate from those of her older sisters. It's set in the 1980s and takes place in a teacher-training school away from both the village she grew up in and the town to which Yumi and Yuxiu moved. It seems that Yuyang's admission to the school has smoothed over her family's reputation: "The news had caused a sensation in Wang Family Village, where it made the rounds several times shortly after the old principal opened the admission letter." And yet, Yuyang, too, finds herself mired in confusing web of power and sex not entirely of her own making.