To All Appearances a Lady

by Marilyn Bowering

A New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice” Selection
A New York Times Notable Book
Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Prize
Shortlisted for the W.H. Smith First Novel Award

“Strangely beautiful, haunting…. The cadenced narrative yields its secrets slowly…. In Lam Fan, the ruefully wise matriarch, Bowering has created a magnificent character, at once mythical and human.”
— Publishers Weekly

“… a vigorous historical novel.”
— The New York Times Book Review

“Against China, Hong Kong, the South China seas and British Columbia from the mid-1800s to the mid 1900s, Marilyn Bowering plays out one man’s search for identity…. A whale of a yarn! [Bowering] takes history, adventure, mystery, and romance and fuses all of the elements into a fascinating whole. The pendulum of her narrative swings with ease from the past to the present and back again. It is an intelligent book.”
— Chattanooga Times

“…a novelist of power and mesmeric voice…. Vivid, absorbing, perceptive, sensitive and spare…. It is one book and many: a Vancouver Island coastal travelogue, a ghost story, a trek after roots, a poetic monologue, and a history of Chinese struggle and settlement…. Its steady, sometimes beseeching voice…belies its drama, for beneath the surface of the writing’s energy lurks a threatening sense of fear….. poignant and heroic. Bowering writes at the edge of her talent; she is affirmative, clear, faithful to life’s mystery. To All Appearances a Lady is a marvellous debut, to all appearances a paragon of dazzling imagination.”
— Scotland on Sunday

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Canada

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 1989

About the author

MARILYN BOWERING’s first novel, To All Appearances A Lady, was a New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, Visible Worlds, was short-listed for the prestigious Orange Prize, nominated for the Dublin IMPAC Prize, and awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Visible Worlds was praised by The Independent as “a tour de force … a wonderful piece of storytelling” and by The New York Times Book Review as “a vast, sprawling feast of a book.” Her novel What it Takes to Be Human was praised by The Globe and Mail as “a great novel… [Bowering] does not seek moments to be brilliant: those moments just arrive.” A new novel, The Unfinished World, was published in late 2025. Bill Gaston, author of Juliet Was a Surprise and The World, called The Unfinished World "a beautiful, insightful novel that performs a remarkable trick with history, time, and memory, a brilliant interweaving that is both teasingly cerebral as well as richly heartfelt.”

More Richly in Earth, part memoir and part literary investigation of a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard, was published by McGill Queen’s Press in 2024 and was long-listed for the Saltire Prize. The Scottish Gaelic writer Maoilios Caimbeul called it "a major work."

Marilyn Bowering is also an award-winning poet and librettist. Jan Zwicky says of Bowering, Her brilliant imagistic gift is always offered in service to the mystery of insight, the other invisible worlds gathered close in this one. Bowering’s poetry includes Human Bodies: Collected Poems 1987-1999, Green, an interplay of form and conversations and Soul Mouth, a book of story and memoir poems. With Threshold (photographs by Xan Shian), Marilyn Bowering extends the conversation to an encounter with a 17th century female Scottish Gaelic bard. Of What Is Long Past Occurs in Full Light (illustrations by Ken Laidlaw), Jan Zwicky comments, Despite her unflinching acknowledgement of the horrors humans visit on themselves and others, her vision is grounded in the subtle integrity of love. A new book of poetry, Frayed Linens, will be published in November 2025.

Marilyn Bowering has received many poetry prizes including the Ruth and David Lampe Award, the Gwen MacEwen Poetry prize, the Pat Lowther Prize, the Dorothy Livesay Prize, several National Magazine Awards, two nominations for the Governor General’s award, and shortlisting for the Prix Italia and the Sony Award. An opera, Marilyn Forever (composer Gavin Bryars), has received production premieres (2013-2022) in Victoria, BC; Long Beach, Ca.; Adelaide, Australia; Vienna, Austria; Oxford and Glasgow, UK; and Hagen and Saarbrücken, Germany. Bowering’s work has been translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Finnish, German, Romanian, Russian, and Punjabi.
Marilyn Bowering was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Victoria, BC. She has lived in various parts of Canada and in Greece, Scotland and Spain and now makes her home on Vancouver Island.

Reviews

[Nancy Gillies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that Marilyn Bowering’s To All Appearances A Lady was a case of an author being overly ambitious. There was just too much of everything: too many names of locations, too much back and forth between the two main narrative threads, too many coincidences, and too many historical tidbits squeezed into the plot. I was interested in the novel mainly because of its setting on and around Vancouver Island, where I live, and because of its focus on some of the history of the early days of the city of Victoria, where much of the action takes place. Unfortunately, the setting became a drawback for me, because, at a certain point, it came to feel like nothing more than a lengthy recitation of place names and the sailing hazards associated with them with little context to bring the places to life. The novel is an interweaving of two stories, the first describing the narrator’s own present-day events as he sails around Vancouver Island accompanied by the ghost of his mother’s adoptive sister (whom he calls his step-mother, which I didn’t understand because she was not married to his father) and the second peeling back the layers of his mother’s history, as revealed by the ghost. Sound confusing? It was, and to compound the confusion, there were often no breaks between the telling of the narrator’s story and his mother’s. They simply switched when one paragraph ended and the next began. In any case, while I admire Bowering’s ambition in creating a complex work of historical fiction and addressing themes related to the keeping of secrets, I felt the novel got bogged down by its structure and by the inclusion of too many unnecessary details.

[Nancy Whited · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually love Canadiana, so I did push my way through this book. I got bored and bogged down with all the nautical lingo and maps, that seemed to go on and on. If you can get through that, there is a good story in between.
It's centered in Victoria BC, and I just got home from a visit there, so all the streets and locations were vivid for me. It gave a good view of the Chinese culture in that area.
I did like the characters in the book. They were with their faults and shining moments, that made them seem real.

[Madelyn Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

For some, this is a British Columbian (if not Canadian) classic; however, this was not my reading experience. I felt no kinship with, nor curiosity about the characters, except for those housed in the lazaretto. There is an abundance of west coast history, and it was was marginally interesting to trace the voyages of the Rose around Vancouver Island. But the writing, while eloquent in some passages, did not sustain the story, and it all seemed to bog down in a mess of opium, seaweed, and bad timing.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this book because it is fiction written by a poet. There are many passages that I reread because the language is wonderful but overall I don't think the premise of the story holds together. It looks like a good idea that in the end doesn't work. I finished the book, slowly, I kept hoping some turn would bring it wonderfully together.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dual timeline historical fiction set in Victoria, BC in the turn of the 20th century and in 1957.

In the later timeline, sixty year old Robert Louis Lam sets sail to circumnavigate Vancouver Island. His solo voyage is interrupted when he’s visited by the ghost of his one hundred year old step-aunt, Lam Fan. As they sail together, Lam Fan recounts the history of Robert’s parents and his birth—a tale of love, loss, intense racism, the underground opium industry and LEPERS, all set in the familiar backdrop of my own hometown.

A compelling take on one of the slices of Victoria’s history. Not a happy story, but a richly imagined and well researched one. The later timeline with Robert and Fan sailing around felt like a narrated tour of the island and Haida Gwaii, which was really fun.

One significant disclaimer not to be overlooked is that there is some language and wording with regards to Indigenous peoples that made me uncomfortable. The book was first published in the ‘80s and would benefit from an annotated update to adjust/make note of some of that problematic terminology.

[Misha Herwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel of love, loss and finding yourself and your history. When Robert Lam sets sail on the Rose he embarks on journey of self discovery triggered by an unexpected and not always welcome stowaway.
Not the easiest of reads, I found the diversions into the description of the islands and waterways intrusive at times as I wanted to get on with the story, but I suspect I would get more out of them in a second read.
Nevertheless, I was thoroughly engaged and would definitely recommend the novel.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

An English teacher recommended this book to me many years ago. I loved it then, and I love it now. Robert Louis Lam(b) journeys up and down the BC coast in an old boat, the Rose, eerily accompanied by his stepmother, Lam Fan. Through intersecting timelines, he explores his own stifled past while learning about the mostly unfortunate lives of his mother, India, his namesake, Robert Louis Haack, and his Chinese father whose identity has been kept a secret. Slow to capture my interest at first, the story soon picked up and gripped me to the end. I love the many references to old Victoria, familiar streets, early city life, and coastal landmarks. The story depends quite a bit on stereotypes of early Chinese immigrants (opium and leprosy being two major themes) (surely not everyone was so touched by these despite their prominence in history) but I can forgive this because the resulting tale is a good one.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books about the Victoria area. It is fiction but accurate, telling the story of a young half Chinese/half White man who searches for the story of his parents. The physical descriptions are accurate as are the situations. His father had hansen's Disease (leprosy) and was sent to Darcy Island to the leper colony there. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in history, Vancouver Island, Victoria.

[Beverley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a really hard time getting into this and in fact put it down after about 30 pages. But I live in Victoria so I eventually picked it up again. It's not as face-paced as I usually like my stories but it is interesting reading about this part of the world and imagining these familiar locations so different. I would recommend it, but perhaps not enthusiastically.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

09

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Haunting, well-written, and very geographically aware, as a lover of the west coast of Canada, I could place myself in the locations of each chapter and section. The story was beautiful and sad, though at times it was hard for me to get my mind around Lam Fan. I loved all the loose ends being tied up at the end, though a new one is created on the last page that I didn't mind at all.

[Jill]

This book is excellently-written (based on the first 50 pages). But too much going on, feeling very scattered. I'm floundering around for another book to suit my mood; otherwise, I won't give this one justice.

[Sondra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story which takes place in Victoria and James Island when it was a leper colony, circa 1890+.

[Mariana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This page-turner-to-the-end tells the story of a half-Chinese boat captain, the Chinese community in Victoria. B.C., leprosy and opium.

[Beryl Johnson]

As a west coaster really enjoyed the local references and history. This is a bit of a slow read but I enjoyed it. As someone said it is like having a poet write a novel.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the book especially that it was about Vancouver island, Victoria.

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Victoria vacation read: local author, local flavor, local haunts.