A work of historical fiction and family saga that is set between 1849 and 1876 in Toi Shan, China, and on the Puget Sound in what would become Washington State.
OF WIND AND DUST
by Shirin Yim Leo
Dial, Spring 2027
(via Kaplan/DeFiore Rights)
In her adult debut, Shirin Yim Leos draws from the extraordinary lives of her great-great-great-grandfather—the first Chinese settler in Washington Territory—and her great-great-great-grandmother, believed by some to be a daughter of Chief Seattle. The novel also explores the intertwined stories of two of his other wives—one born married, the other born a slave.
Leos was deeply compelled by the idea of these three women, from radically different backgrounds, navigating simultaneous marriage to one man in a moment in history that offered them almost no autonomy.
OF WIND AND DUST beautifully follows each woman’s journey as she seeks identity, belonging, and moments of personal happiness within the rigid boundaries of their cultural and historical circumstances. Shirin Yim Leo explores complex female relationships and generational legacy. Like Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, it positions ordinary lives against sweeping tides of history and change. And like Karen Joy Fowler’s Booth, the novel is told in alternating points of view that come together to form a single, emotionally resonant family portrait. Readers of Lisa See, Jenny Tinghui Zhang, and C. Pam Zhang will also find much to enjoy here.
Shirin Yim Leo is an Ezra Jack Keats Award-winning author of children’s books, an editor, and a former publisher. She has taught writing at international conferences and at institutions such as Stanford University’s Continuing Studies program. Publishers Weekly named her a talent to watch; two feature articles and several years later, they placed her on their front cover. Shirin has presented research related to this novel and its characters at the Seattle Public Library, The Museum of History and Industry, the University of Washington, and the California Writers’ Club.
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