The World In Between

During a Hong Kong summer in the late 1960s, there are reports of bombs exploding in the streets, rumors of dead bodies floating "down the Pearl River, from the fighting in Canton," and the buzz of an increasing onslaught from the "Red" East: "Little Red Books of Mao Zedong's edicts wave in the air. Red bursts of firecrackers. Red drums. Red Guards." In this summer in the city Alice Greenway sets her slim and lyrical debut novel, White Ghost Girls . Greenway's book depicts the coming-of-age of two American girls, Kate and Frankie. Amidst the faint rumblings of violence and revolution, the...