"We didn't call the police right away." Those are the electric first words of this extraordinary novel about a biracial Korean American family in Virginia whose lives are upended when their beloved father and husband goes missing. Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical twenty-year-old daughter, has an explanation for everything--which is why she isn't initially concerned when her father and younger brother Eugene don't return from a walk in a nearby...

Ahn Joo Cho emigrated with her family from Korea to Virginia at the age of seven. Two years later, a cab called 'Reliable' took away her mother and her infant brother forever. Grade by grade in school, Ahn Joo comes of age within an alien society, excelling at creative writing as her home life with her old-fashioned father deteriorates. Language heals her, and saves her. As Ahn Joo enters womanhood, a heart-breaking secret finally sets her free to...