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From the winner of the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Prizecomes the extraordinary, unexpected debut tale of three generations of Chinese-American women in a San Francisco family who must confront their past and carve out a future.The Kong women are in crisis. A disastrous trip to visit her home orphanage in China has plunged eighteen-year-old Ari into a self-destructive spiral. Her adoptive mother, Charlie, a lawyer with a great heart, is desperate to keep her daughter safe. Meanwhile, Charlie must endure the prickly scrutiny of her beautiful, Bryn Mawr educated mother, Granwho, as the daughter of a cultured Chinese doctor, came to America to survive Maos Revolutionand her sister, Les, a brilliant judge with a penchant to rule over everyones lives. As they cope with Aris journey of discovery and its aftermath, the Kong women will come face to face with the truths of their livesfour powerful intertwining stories of accomplishment, tenacity, secrets, loneliness, and love.