I was slow to warm up to this book, at one point putting it aside. Coming back to it a few weeks later, I found myself in a much batter place to appreciate what Lee has accomplished with this novel. Until this novel the only expats I had read about were Hemingway and his hard drinking partying crew, but they were expats by choice. This book follows three women who lives connect and affect each other in different ways. Except for Mercy, the youngest, a Korean American who had attended Columbia who comes to Hong Kong timescale the pressure of failing to find a career path, Margaret and Hillary come because of their husband's jobs. They live in the American Zone, where others like them live, with little or no contact with the native people of Hong Kong, with the exception of their servants. Lee, does a great job of describing this life, the expectations, the unrealistic aspect of it, the feeling that real life had stopped. The loneliness and isolation this type of life can have.

The three women, I neither liked nor disliked but it was their stories that make this book special. All are touched by an unexpected happening, something in their lives that causes grief, in Margaret's case a profound grief that is poignantly described. How they change in the face of these events is the main story. Each must make the decision to go on in whatever way they can. It is also a wonderful ode to mothers and their children. How big an impact a child can have on a mother's lives and what they will do for their children. This is a well written character study, a novel of quiet impact and a look into Amway of life many of us will never experience.

The ending, both happy and sad, maybe a little to pat but it seemed fitting after experiencing their stories. Sometimes, it is only the way forward that counts.