About a Chinese American chef who, lured to a decadent, enigmatic colony of the superrich in a near future in which food is disappearing, discovers the meaning of pleasure and the ethics of who gets to enjoy it, altering her life and, indirectly, the world--

From the massively talented Gish Jen comes a barbed, moving, and stylistically dazzling new novel about the elusive nature of kinship. The Wongs describe themselves as a "half half" family, but the actual fractions are more complicated, given Carnegie's Chinese heritage, his wife Blondie's WASP background, and the various ethnic permutations of their adopted and biological children. Into this new American family comes a volatile new member. Her name...

Katie is sad when she is cast as an earthworm in her school play, because that means she cannot be the star.

Having arrived in San Francisco from China to work in his brother's store, Ming is lonely until an Irish boy befriends him.

A promising young ballet student cannot afford to continue lessons when her Chinese grandmother emigrates from Hong Kong, creating jealousy and conflict among the entire family.

Sam must decide how to spend the lucky money he's received for Chinese New Year.

Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything.

After a young Chinese American girl opens fortune cookies with her family, she notices that the fortunes seem to come true. Includes brief notes on the history of the fortune cookie.

Dennis, the son of Chinese immigrants, yearns to play video games like his friends and, upon his strict father's death, becomes obsessed with them but later, realizing how his father sacrificed for him, he chooses a nobler path.

Laura and the other inhabitants of Mansfield, Missouri, face the problems of racism and a clash of cultures when Chinese immigrants try to settle in the pioneer community.