Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Acknowledgements
NOTES ON RESEARCH
About the Author
THE PENGUIN PRESS
Published by the Penguin Group
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Published in 2009 by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Shawna Yang Ryan, 2007
All rights reserved
Originally published under the title Locke 1928 by El Leon Literary Arts
Excerpt from The Nobel Acceptance Speech by Toni Morrison, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Publisher’s Note
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Ryan, Shawna Yang, date.
Water ghosts : a novel / Shawna Yang Ryan.
p. cm.
eISBN : 978-1-101-01446-2
1. Chinese—California—Delta Region—Fiction. 2. Immigrants—California—Delta Region—
Fiction. 3. Locke (Calif.)—Fiction. 4. Delta Region (Calif.)—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3618.Y344L63 2009
813’.6—dc22 2008029400
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrightable materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
For my parents, Mike and Ellen
Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a man. What moves at the margin. What it is to have no home in this place. To be set adrift from the one you knew. What it is to live at the edge of towns that cannot bear your company.
—TONI MORRISON
Nobel lecture, December 7, 1993
PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS
Richard Fong (aka Fong Man Gum), manager of the Lucky
Fortune Gambling Hall
Ming Wai, Richard’s wife, one of three boat-women
Poppy See (aka Po Pei), brothel madam, seer
Chloe Virginia Howell, a prostitute in Madam See’s brothel,
Richard Fong’s lover
Howar Lee, preacher
Corlissa Lee, wife of preacher Howar Lee
Sofia Lee, their only daughter, friend of Chloe’s
So Wai, boat-woman
Sai Fung, boat-woman
MINOR CHARACTERS
Alfred, Chloe’s former lover
Barrett, Chloe’s former admirer
Lee Bing, founder of Locke
Tuffy Leamon, speakeasy owner
Uncle Happy, farm laborer
Cholly Wong, ill-fated rescuer of boat-women
Manny Chow, gambler
Mrs. Chow, bootlegger, wife of Manny Chow
Lau Sing Yan, Richard Fong’s childhood friend and rival
Sarah, Poppy See’s fellow dancer, adulteress
The butcher, Sarah’s lover, murderer
Ruby Moore, New York jazz singer
David Howell, Chloe’s brother
Jack Yang, restaurant owner
Lucy Yang, Jack Yang’s wife
PROLOGUE
The Founding (1915)
HER MIND WAS taken with the thought of pussy willows. She saw them in the market, long cut stems emerging from a bucket of water, ten cents a bunch. Each fistful tied with string. Her eyes lingered over them as she stood in line with a can of condensed milk. She weighed the can in her hand as she thought about the willows—which vase she might use, which corner or tabletop they might decorate. She lived in a small apartment—kitchen crowding into dining area crowding into sitting space crowding into a room for a bed. That was all. The way the light fell, through thick glass windows onto tea-colored walls, would turn the brown branches gold.
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