After the Bloom

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Leslie Shimotakahara. After the Bloom

Cover

Contents

Adrift

One

Two

The Desert

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Twenty-Three

Twenty-Four

Twenty-Five

Twenty-Six

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Eight

Twenty-Nine

Thirty

Thirty-One

Acknowledgements

Of Related Interest

Copyright

Отрывок из книги

Their house had always been a wreck. The difference was that back then Rita assumed all houses were like that. Paint on the porch peeling, like old nail polish. Full of boarders, or “guests,” as Lily liked to call them; everyone lined up in the cramped hall to use the bathroom at night. The floors of some rooms were so uneven that if Rita closed her eyes, everything seemed to spin gently, the feeling of drunkenness, she’d realize years later.

Cracks in the bricks up one side had gotten worse. Now the whole house looked tilted, about to sink.

.....

She used to live in fear that her friends would find out something was funny with her mom. It was bad enough being Japanese — one of only two Oriental girls at her school and the other girl wasn’t at all outgoing or pretty. The last thing she wanted was to be seen as both the Japanese girl and the girl with the crazy mother.

“When I was growing up, Mom would get distracted and wander off for maybe half a day, tops. We always knew she was coming back.”

.....