Publisher's Synopsis
In this debut novel, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a strong-willed and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive. The siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighbouring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby emerges.
