Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-confessed recluse, she finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. Now in their nineties, Monica worries about them-especially her grandmother Yun whose memory has begun to fade. Monica has become intent on tracking down the long-lost cousin Meng that her grandmother was separated from back in China before it’s too late. In her search, Monica connects with a young woman archivist who presents her with a single pencil that holds a clue to a hidden family history. Through it Monica comes to learn of her grandmother’s years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII raged outside their door, Yun and Meng, came into a unique power the women in their family possess: the ability to reclaim stories from the pencils they were written with. But when government officials uncover their secret ability, they are both forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive. These shocking discoveries set Monica on a path that will change all their lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. At once a sweeping cross-generational family epic and an uplifting story with deep emotional resonance, Allison King’s brilliantly inventive debut novel pushes us to question how well we really know our own stories and the many beguiling ways they connect our lives.
