[1] Like many of her works, it deals with mother-daughter relationship and is partly set in historical China.

[3] In the first part of the story, Violet tells the story of growing up in Hidden Jade Path, a courtesan house in Shanghai that is run by her mother, an American woman named Lulu Minturn.

[4] When the Qing dynasty falls in 1912, mother and daughter are separated and the young girl is sold to a rivaling courtesan house, where she is educated by an older girl, Magic Gourd, formerly of her mother's house.

She recalls her upbringing by remote parents in the US, her runaway with an unknown Chinese painter, and her struggle to be accepted as the mother of their two children.

On The Omnivore, based on British press reviews, the book received an "omniscore" of 3.5 out of 5.