Water Ghosts

In 1928 in California's town of Locke three Chinese women appear - and they will turn the community upside down. A woman's premonitions of disaster appear to be true as the women's connections to the town deepen and create controversy. A fine novel of ethnic tensions and understanding evolves.

Shawna Yang Ryan captures the characters of Water Ghosts in delicate description that draws the reader in until it is impossible to escape the deep confines of the story. Her use of imagery and careful prose is beautiful and revealing of character and place. A wonderful story by a talented author.

Having just put this book down, I am still slack-jawed at the richness of Ms. Ryan's descriptions. Her characters can almost be felt with my own hands. I can most certainly smell them, hear their voices whispering in my ear... I knew nothing of this time and place before I read this book and I now feel like I have a deep understanding of yet another story of how our country was built on the backs of immigrants. (Reference to the brothel workers not intended but makes for an interesting pun I now see...)

I loved the book so much that I visited the town of Locke. I really apprecaited all the thinking, interviewing, researching, and writing that went into this beautiful historical novel. A wonderful way to get in a little history of the Chinese farm workers during that period and the true story of how a small town came into being. A rich set of characters, eros, hot sticky days, hard work, ghosts, the preacher's daughter, it was all so wonderful. I'm not a good writer so this review doesn't do justice to this book. Congratulations to the author.

Take one part Toni Morrison, one part Van Morrison, a dash of California history, sprinkle with a challenging dose of everything you don't know about race and you get a little something like Locke 1928.