Eunha, a young Korean woman married to a respectable Chinese businessman, lives in a Hong Kong ocean-view apartment as a proper tai tai (a wealthy, married woman of leisure). She has a helper to care for her three-year-old son, Minsuk, and plenty of time to play tennis and gossip with her friends at the exclusive Palm Club. But when Minsuk is snatched off a busy street, Eunha is pulled back into the criminal underworld she has worked so hard to avoid. Could the kidnapping be tied to her brother Solomon’s role as a Dragon Head within the Chinese Triad syndicate? They control so much of Hong Kong. As her well-ordered life begins to spiral out of control, Eunha also gets caught in the orbit of Kai, a childhood friend who had been a favorite of her Dragon Head father and who, too, has achieved success in the Triad. Can Eunha find the strength to resist Kai’s allure and chart a new and different course for herself? Alternating between Eunha’s sheltered childhood in a remote village and her troubled present, memoirist Cho’s (Inferno) elegant, introspective fiction debut is a haunting and emotional tale about family love, loyalty, betrayal, and vengeance.—Willy Williams
