This book owes much to books, both fiction and nonfiction—first and foremost Helen Zia’s Last Boat Out of Shanghai: The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Fled Mao’s Revolution, which sparked my interest in Shanghai in the first place. Other books that informed my understanding of Shanghai and Taiwan, which also happen to be wonderful reads, include Shanghai: The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City 1842–1949 by Stella Dong; Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden: Two Sisters Separated by China’s Civil War by Zhuqing Li; Lust, Caution by Eileen Chang, translated by Julia Lovell, and its corresponding movie directed by Ang Lee; My Years as Chang Tsen: Two Wars, One Childhood by Annabel Annuo Liu; Remembering Shanghai: A Memoir of Socialites, Scholars and Scoundrels by Isabel Sun Chao and Claire Chao; The Third Son by Julie Wu; Green Island by Shawna Yang Ryan; and The Boy from Clearwater by Pei-Yun Yu, illustrated by Jian-Xin Zhou and translated by Lin King. Any mistakes are my own.

Vivian Wu’s history of Boston Chinatown talk hosted by Panethnic Pourovers was wonderful and helped me set the scene for Yun’s arrival in Boston.

Michelle Caswell’s Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives and the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation; Jarrett M. Drake’s Liberatory Archives: Towards Belonging and Believing; and Randall C. Jimerson’s Archives for All: Professional Responsibility and Social Justice were excellent resources for helping me understand memory work.

Now—there is much thanks to give!

To my agent, Seth Fishman, for being fun and delightful, in addition to being a wonderful agent, of course. Thanks also to the rest of the team at the Gernert Company, especially Ellen Coughtrey, Jack Gernert, Rebecca Gardner, Nora Gonzalez, Will Roberts, and also to Shiv Doraiswami and Sean Berard at Grandview.

This book transformed under the eagle eyes of my editor Jessica Williams, who made pretty much everything make more sense, and also convinced me to give EMBRS a better name (maybe SparkLE will live on in another book . . . ). Thanks for championing my book so wonderfully! Thanks also to Peter Kispert for being so wonderfully responsive and encouraging, and to the tireless efforts of others at HarperCollins: Laura Brady, Ana Deboo, Kyra DeVoe, Jennifer Hart, Jen McGuire, Kelsey Manning, Mumtaz Mustafa, Eliza Rosenberry, Nancy Singer, and Liate Stehlik. And to Will Staehle at Unusual Co. for such a wonderful cover!

Thanks to Kish Widyaratna at 4th Estate for bringing this book to the UK! And to everyone else who has worked to bring this book to new lands.