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Title details for Water Ghosts by Shawna Yang Ryan - Available

Water Ghosts

A Novel

by Shawna Yang Ryan
Laural Merlington
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
Locke, California, 1928. Three bedraggled Chinese women suddenly appear out of the mist one afternoon in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River, and their arrival throws the community into confusion. Two of the women are unknown to the townspeople, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor, who had left her behind in China many years earlier and had not yet returned for her.


Richard's wife's unexpected arrival complicates his life in no small way—not least with two prostitutes at the local brothel he frequents. One, the beautiful young Chloe, depends on him but has eyes for someone else, someone even more forbidden: the local preacher's daughter. The other, Poppy, the psychic madam of the brothel, is desperately in love with Richard, and she begins to sink into despair as he grows further and further away from her.


As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, Poppy's premonitions begin to foretell a deep unhappiness for all involved. And when a flood threatens the livelihood of the entire town, the frightening power of these mysterious women who arrived in the mist will be revealed.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 4, 2009

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781400191857
      • File size: 189597 KB
      • Duration: 06:34:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Rich description is the order of the day in WATER GHOSTS, a soft-focus portrait of Locke, California, a community founded by immigrants. When a boat mysteriously glides down river into town, the lives of Locke's residents are jolted by faces from the past and fears for the future. Laural Merlington embraces both the voices and the imagery with a skilled performance, keeping the pace appropriately slow and carefully enunciated. Still, with an eye for setting at the expense of character and plot, this novel feels awkward and, at times, stagnant as an audiobook. Instead of being drawn into empathy or suspense, the listener is kept at arm's length by the prose, making this a novel better suited to the page than to headphones. L.B.F. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      January 12, 2009
      A dreamlike haze shimmers over Ryan's debut, the tale of a real-life immigrants' enclave in early 20th-century California. In the mining town of Locke outside Sacramento, Richard Fong's Lucky Fortune casino and Poppy See's brothel provide the only entertainment for Chinese workers sending their wages back to the families they can't bring into the country. For Chloe, a white prostitute who is Richard's favorite, it's also a place to hide from her family just a few towns over. Mired in the past, the town's residents are jolted into the present when three strange Chinese women, including Richard's long-lost wife, arrive during the Dragon Boat Festival looking for their husbands. After years of her absence, Richard struggles to adapt his bachelor lifestyle to accommodate a woman who has become a stranger to him, and Chloe dreams of starting over somewhere new when Richard abandons her bed. Ryan's fluid flashbacks allow the past to sweep over the collective population of Locke, and her elegant female protagonists manage to exercise their own agency even when they're hemmed in by life in Locke.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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