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In his confident debut, Greg Bechtel offers ten charged stories about the impossible-turned-possible—secrets, paranoia, sex, conspiracies, and magic—that the strangeness of the world around us.

Arriving in late 19th-century China with her missionary parents, Pearl Buck is soon fascinated by her new home and strikes up a friendship with a young Chinese girl named Willow.

Late 19th-century China is a tumultuous land beset by warring enemies--both from beyond its borders and within the fabled walls of the Forbidden City.

Traces the author's journey from the painful deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of the United States, where she endured five jobs, crime, and a painful marriage before the birth of a