Quotes from Ava Chin

Good riddance, Yulan must have thought, to finally leave the one-room shack and her in-laws behind.)

May we all experience that kind of acceptance and love.

I am trying to keep it all together -- not lashing out in anger, not bursting into tears, because what is anger, but pain masquerading as bravado?

Shim could not tell if the woozy light-headedness of nascent love that made his breath catch every time he saw Chun was partially a function of his own interrupted sleep as his hours began matching that of Nethersole's most in-demand midwife, or the warmth of Chun's strong, elegant hands when she switched from holding on to the bar under her seat to clutching his waist on a day when they hit a bump and she had to prevent herself from flying off the bike.

Did he contain himself as he felt inside Elva's vagina, smooth like a cul-de-sac, with no discernible cervix, no peekaboo womb or errant fallopian tubes? Did he express surprise or consternation upon uncovering what lay before him, an extra . . . what? No, not an unusually large, blushing labia, but a real-life miniature penis, one that could become aroused with certain thoughts or feelings, but which at that moment remained flaccid between his cold, clinical fingers.