Bone - fae myenne ng

We were a family of three girls.

By Chinese standards, that wasnt lucky.

In Chinatown, everyone knew our story.

Outsiders jerked their chins, looked at us, shook their heads.

We heard things.

In this profoundly moving novel, Fae Myenne Ng takes readers into the hidden heart of San Franciscos Chinatown, to the world of one familys honor, their secrets, and the lost bones of a paper father.

Two generations of the Leong family live in an uneasy tension as they try to fathom the source of a brave young girls sorrow.

Oldest daughter Leila tells the story: of her sister Ona, who has ended her young, conflicted life by jumping from the roof of a Chinatown housing project; of her mother Mah, a seamstress in a garment shop run by a Chinese Elvis; of Leon, her father, a merchant seaman who ships out frequently; and the familys youngest, Nina, who has escaped to New York by working as a flight attendant.

With Ona and Nina gone, it is up to Leila to lay the bones of the familys collective guilt to rest, and find some way to hope again.

Fae Myenne Ngs luminous debut explores what it means to be a stranger in ones own family, a foreigner in ones own neighborhood--and whether its possible to love a place that may never feel quite like home.