Her name is Hua. People say it is fitting she is called flower, so beautiful, but she thinks weak and fleeting. JinHai praised her eyes for being round as jasmine pearls and her skin the creamy flesh of a Taro root. A prize he called her, so she felt like one. Now she thinks that with a name like Golden Sea she should have suspected he’d leave her in splinters like an old junk tossed against the shore after a monsoon.

The idea rose ten stories into the air. Open gondolas shaped like birdcages painted royal blue, canary yellow, purple and green. Striped...

You need to understand, I did it for her. For my wife. Carla. And now, she reads to our daughter, Margaret, as if nothing happened. Like...