First published 2025
A Taiwanese woman climbs into a cardboard box and ships herself via express delivery to her waiting husband in California. She arrives to find a man decades older than expected. Meanwhile, two teenage girls sharpen knives and plan the murder of their downstairs neighbor, debating cooking methods. In Paris, an American au pair discovers her exact French double living the life she thought she wanted. A estranged father reconnects with his daughter on a film set where he works as a background actor. Each story in this collection peels away comfortable lies to reveal the uncomfortable truths beneath. Characters deceive themselves about their motives, their relationships, and their capacity for both tenderness and violence. Chou examines how people construct narratives to justify their desires, even when those desires lead them toward cruelty or self-destruction.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, collections, contemporary, short-story-collection
Vibes: character-driven, dark, introspective, thought-provoking, unsettling
Tropes: character-study, dark-humor, multiple-perspectives, unreliable-narrator
Setting: California, Paris, Taiwan
352 pages · Paperback · Penguin Books
Content warnings: murder, violence