SHAWNA YANG RYAN, WATER GHOSTS

 

A mesmerizing story of a community of Chinese immigrants in a small California town in 1928, Water Ghosts weaves history with mythology around the lives of the townspeople and the ghosts who haunt them.  Three bedraggled Chinese women appear out of the mist in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River. Two are unknown to its residents, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor. As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, their frightening power is finally revealed.  This lyrical imagining of what happens when a Chinese ghost story comes true is a rich tale of human passions and mingling cultures that will appeal to readers of Lisa See, Anchin Min, and Gail Tsukiyama.

The child of parents who met during the Vietnam War when her father was stationed in Taiwan, Shawna Yang Ryan holds degrees from Cal Berkeley and Cal Davis, and was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan. Water Ghosts was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award.