A playful and deeply affective short story collection about the histories technologies and
generational divides that shape our relationships?from the award-winning writer of Days of
Distraction Compelling and perceptive Tomb Sweeping probes the loyalties we hold: to relatives
to strangers and to ourselves. In stories set across the US and Asia Alexandra Chang immerses
us in the lives of immigrant families grocery store employees expecting parents and
guileless lab assistants. A woman known only to her neighbors as ?the Asian recycling lady?
collects bottles from the streets she calls home. A young college grad ponders the void left
from a broken friendship. An unfulfilled housewife in Shanghai finds a secret outlet for her
ambitions in an undercover gambling den. Two strangers become something more through the bond
of mistaken identity. These characters adeptly attuned to the mystery of living invite us to
consider whether it is possible for anyone to entirely do right by another. Tomb Sweeping brims
with remarkable skill and talent in every story keeping a definitive pulse on loss community
and what it means to feel fully alive. With her debut story collection Chang further
establishes herself as ?a writer to watch? (New York Times Book Review).
