| Edition |
First edition. |
| Physical Description |
278 pages ; 22 cm. |
| Note |
"A novel" -- Cover. |
| Summary |
A Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive. Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges. |
| Subject |
Taiwanese Americans -- Alaska -- Fiction.
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Immigrants -- Fiction.
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Children -- Death -- Fiction.
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Grief -- Fiction.
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Alaska -- Fiction.
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Domestic fiction.
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