I spent the first half of this book not sure if I liked it. It seemed a bit whiny. But it turned out to be absolutely brilliant. Modern day Monica, who was raised by her Chinese grandparents in Boston, drops out of her college coding course to come back and care for them when her grandmother, Yun, begins to lose her memory. Monica is determined to help her find her long lost cousin, presumably still in China, and with whom she worked at the family pencil company back in Shanghai in 1937. Their pencils, turns out, were very special, as were the girls' ability to detect the words the pencils had written.
In a long letter to her cousin, Yun describes their history, their parting, and the intervening years. Monica makes a connection with another young woman who has actually met her grandmother's cousin in Shanghai through a computer program Monica has written, and blossoming feelings get in the way (or do they bring them together?). At once historical fiction, fictional memoir, queer romance (very chaste, don't worry) and magical realism, don't miss this engrossing story of four women who feel love very strongly, but feel the healing of forgiveness even more.
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