In luminous prose, Lan Samantha Chang weaves the forces of war and magic, food and desire, ghosts and family, into haunting tales that capture the compelling experiences of Asian immigrants in America.
The novella and five stories that make up this collection reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death; and in the title novella, a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to an exiled musician whose own disappointments nearly destroyed their two daughters.