The 20th anniversary edition of a groundbreaking Asian-American queer classic by celebrated author Justin Chin
Floating somewhere between fiction and memoir, Burden of Ashes is a beautiful and brutal series of short stories in which childhood, homeland, and lovers both real and imagined succumb to whimsy, revision, denial, and truthful embellishment. Within these pages, Chin artfully creates a personal world where snake killings, demonic possession, the enigmatic pleasure of a deep kiss, cruelty, and compassion all co-exist. Actual events and fictional outcomes reconcile what has been lost, outgrown, and abandoned with what never was and what might have been.
"N
othing short of phantasmagoric... disturbing if Chin didn't seem so firmly in control of his language and self, both of which emerge here luminously." — Publishers Weekly"Though leavened by salty wit, this frank portrait of lacerating personal circumstances will make some readers marvel that the species survives at all." — Kirkus Reviews
