Water Ghosts: A Novel - Softcover

Ryan, Shawna Yang

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0143117270 ISBN 13: 9780143117278

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2010

Synopsis

A mesmerizing debut novel that weaves history and mythology around a community of Chinese immigrants and the ghosts that haunt them

Locke, California, 1928. 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.

A lyrical imagining of what happens when a Chinese ghost story comes true, Water Ghosts is a rich tale of human passions and mingling cultures that will appeal to readers of Lisa See, Anchin Min, and Gail Tsukiyama.

About this title

About the Author

Shawna Yang Ryan was born in Sacramento, California, and received her BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MA from the University of California, Davis. In 2002, she was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan. Water Ghosts, originally published as Locke 1928, was a finalist for the 2008 Northern California Book Award. She currently lives in Berkeley.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

 

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

 

Acknowledgements

NOTES ON RESEARCH

About the Author

THE PENGUIN PRESS
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 

Published in 2009 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

Copyright © Shawna Yang Ryan, 2007

All rights reserved

 

Originally published under the title Locke 1928 by El Leon Literary Arts

 

Excerpt from The Nobel Acceptance Speech by Toni Morrison, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.

 

Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA

 

Ryan, Shawna Yang, date.
Water ghosts : a novel / Shawna Yang Ryan.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-01446-2

1. Chinese—California—Delta Region—Fiction. 2. Immigrants—California—Delta Region—
Fiction. 3. Locke (Calif.)—Fiction. 4. Delta Region (Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3618.Y344L63 2009
813’.6—dc22 2008029400

 

 

Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

 

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

For my parents, Mike and Ellen

Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.

 

—TONI MORRISON
Nobel lecture, December 7, 1993

PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

 

Richard Fong (aka Fong Man Gum), manager of the Lucky
Fortune Gambling Hall
Ming Wai, Richard’s wife, one of three boat-women
Poppy See (aka Po Pei), brothel madam, seer
Chloe Virginia Howell, a prostitute in Madam See’s brothel,
Richard Fong’s lover
Howar Lee, preacher
Corlissa Lee, wife of preacher Howar Lee
Sofia Lee, their only daughter, friend of Chloe’s
So Wai, boat-woman
Sai Fung, boat-woman

 

MINOR CHARACTERS

 

Alfred, Chloe’s former lover
Barrett, Chloe’s former admirer
Lee Bing, founder of Locke
Tuffy Leamon, speakeasy owner
Uncle Happy, farm laborer
Cholly Wong, ill-fated rescuer of boat-women
Manny Chow, gambler
Mrs. Chow, bootlegger, wife of Manny Chow
Lau Sing Yan, Richard Fong’s childhood friend and rival
Sarah, Poppy See’s fellow dancer, adulteress
The butcher, Sarah’s lover, murderer
Ruby Moore, New York jazz singer
David Howell, Chloe’s brother
Jack Yang, restaurant owner
Lucy Yang, Jack Yang’s wife

PROLOGUE

The Founding (1915)

HER MIND WAS taken with the thought of pussy willows. She saw them in the market, long cut stems emerging from a bucket of water, ten cents a bunch. Each fistful tied with string. Her eyes lingered over them as she stood in line with a can of condensed milk. She weighed the can in her hand as she thought about the willows—which vase she might use, which corner or tabletop they might decorate. She lived in a small apartment—kitchen crowding into dining area crowding into sitting space crowding into a room for a bed. That was all. The way the light fell, through thick glass windows onto tea-colored walls, would turn the brown branches gold.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0143117270
• ISBN 13: 9780143117278
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272