"One evening, my father asked me if I would like to become a ghost bride..." Though ruled by British overlords, the Chinese of colonial Malaya still cling to ancient customs. And in the sleepy port town of Malacca, ghosts and superstitions abound. Li Lan, the daughter of a genteel but bankrupt family, has few prospects. But fate intervenes when she receives an unusual proposal from the wealthy and powerful Lim family. They want her to become a...

Charlie and Lola see that playing together is more fun than getting their own way. In these six wonderful stories, Charlie and Lola use their creativity and imaginations to make sense of the world around them.

"The heart of Friday Night Lights meets the emotional resonance and nostalgia of My So-Called Life in this moving debut novel about tradition, family, love, and football. As the high school football coach in his small, rural Maryland town, Dean is a hero who reorganized the athletic program and brought the state championship to the community. When he married Nicole, the beloved town sweetheart, he seemed to have it all--until his troubled wife committed...

Set in Mississippi in the late 1940s and based on Willie Morris' boyhood memoirs. Eight-year-old Willie loses his only friend in the world to the draft until his mother gives him a puppy for his birthday.

"Dearest Nell, if you're reading this letter, I'm already gone ... You're my best friend in the world, and as my last request I'm asking you to lay me to rest hundreds of miles away, in my crazy gorgeous, totally one-of-a-kind hometown of Tansy Falls. I know you're a born-and-bred city girl, but hear me out. After first losing Adrian, and then me ... I know your heart is hurting, Nell. I think you'll find that you need Tansy Falls as much as I do....

"'Are you going into town today?' she says, which annoys me because it's something she says all the time, having forgotten she said it before, and I say, 'Jesus, Mum, not this again,' and she says, 'What again?' and I say, 'Town is shut down,' and while she can see I am upset and wants not to upset me like this, she is also wounded by my tone, and I am ashamed then and can only look at my plate, and I decide not to bring up what I intended to bring...

A story set in a Québec asbestos town in 1940 before the days of miners' unions. Uncle Antoine owns the general store and is the local undertaker, with his nephew Benoit as an occasional helper. On Christmas Eve, a combination of events forces Benoit to face the harsher realities of life.