First published 2008
Jack Moon Szeto cuts meat at the Universal Market in San Francisco's Chinatown. He serves the grass widows whose husbands labor in Central Valley farms, and he provides more than butcher services to these lonely women. Jack bought his name and built his life around it, but he remains trapped by paper bonds. His fake father Yi-Tung Szeto owns him through debt. His paper wife Ilin Cheung belongs to Yi-Tung in reality, married to Jack only on documents. Jack loves Joice Qwan, an American-born woman who hands out towels at the Underground Bathhouse and sells tickets at the Great Star Theatre. Joice dreams of romance and escape from Chinatown, but Jack sees her as his ghost of love, better pursued than possessed. When his paper wife arrives from China in the 1960s, Jack must complete his contract and stand before the law with this woman who will serve as his fake father's mistress. Jack inherits a brutal cultural legacy that strips him of choice, but he seeks to write a new story that includes both Joice and America.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, asian-american, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Central Valley, China, Chinatown, San Francisco, Underground Bathhouse, Universal Market
Period: 1960s
255 pages · Hardcover · Hachette Books