Set in modern China, February Flowers tells a story of self-discovery and reconciliation with the past.

An unlikely pair, seventeen-year-old Ming and twenty-four-year-old Yan meet and form an immediate bond despite having very little in common. Ming, innocent and preoccupied, lives in her own world of books, music and imagination. Yan is, by contrast, beautiful, sexy, wild, and manipulative. Their friendship is brief, almost accidental, but intense, and it changes Ming's world forever.

Insightful, sophisticated, and rich with complex characters, FEBRUARY FLOWERS captures a society torn between tradition and modernity, dogma and freedom. It is a meditation on friendship, family, love, loss and redemption, and how a background shapes a life.

Short story: Jade
The Missouri Review: 29:3 Fall 2006