At dusk, we ride the Ferris wheel. The white metal cars turn around and around as we watch the sunset over the northern hills. The screams and laughter, the sigh of the tide are just echoes up high. Setsuko bounces from one side of the enclosure to the other while eating an ice-cream cone. She leaves drips of it in her passing, a trail of hardening sugar. I feel something aching, something surging inside of me, then subsiding again. I want to cry, but I need to stay strong. Or maybe that’s no longer true.

“Mommy,” Setsuko says with a happy smile, “I think I’m going to remember this day forever!”

“That’s nice, baby,” I reply. Unexpectedly, the Ferris wheel stops and we are suspended at the apex of its circle, swinging back and forth in air. I take my daughter’s sticky sweet hands in mine.

“Tell me the story,” I say.

acknowledgments

I would not have been able to bring this collection into the world without the generosity of the following individuals:

To Eric Chinski, thank you for the faith you have placed in me and my writing. I’m incredibly honored to be one of the authors under your guidance.

To Julia Ringo, it has been such a gift to work with an editor who is so brilliant and attentive as well as so kind. Thank you for helping me to see these stories with new eyes and to shape them into their best possible forms. You are a wonder.

To Cynthia Cannell, I am grateful to have such a dedicated and elegant agent as my advocate. My thanks to you, Charlotte, and Nico at CCLA for your insight and all the opportunities you’ve made possible for me.

To Diane Williams, I could not have asked for a better mentor, and I cherish the years we’ve spent working together on NOON. I have learned so much about power and concision in fiction from observing how your extraordinary mind approaches editing.

Thank you to my professors at Northwestern University and Columbia School of the Arts for your early support and for helping me to become a better thinker about the craft of writing, with special gratitude to: Brian Bouldrey, Rebecca Curtis, Stuart Dybek, Rivka Galchen, Samantha Gillison, John Keene, Mary Kinzie, Paul La Farge, Sam Lipsyte, Ben Marcus, Tom McCarthy, Eleanor Wilner, and Christian Wiman.

To Andy Yamazaki, thank you for your thoughtful and detailed assistance in translation.

To Xuan Juliana Wang, your support and care will always be remembered and appreciated.

Thank you to my dearest friends and first readers of this entire collection in its many drafts over the years: Hilary Leichter, JW McCormack, and Mary Roberts. I am in debt to you beyond measure for your notes, your reassurance, and your wisdom.

Thank you to my writing group and the following talented writers who read and offered great insight on many of these stories: Rebekah Bergman, Rita Bullwinkel, Jessamine Chan, Diane Cook, Claudia Cravens, Lee Ellis, Yael Korman, Heather Monley, Wistar Murray, and David Varno.