Homeseeking

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and child abuse.

The novel opens with a description of the sounds of a neighborhood in Shanghai early in the morning as people begin their work. Protagonist Suchi Zhang, who is 16 years old, is having a nightmare that Haiwen Wang doesn’t recognize her. Her sister, Sulan, is asleep next to her after getting home late from a night out dancing. Her parents had laid awake that night worrying about money. Her father, Li’oe, feels particularly guilty for having pawned a gold ring that he had purchased for Suchi’s dowry. 

In the Wang household, everyone is awake. Haiwen listens to the sounds of the city. Then, he goes to the Zhang household with his violin and leaves it at their doorstep. He imagines himself standing over Suchi in her sleep. At that moment, Suchi, still asleep, thinks that “she can feel the warm heft of Haiwen’s presence encircling hers” (6). That day, Haiwen is shipping out with the military.

Haiwen (who goes by Howard in the United States), now 78 years old, runs into Suchi at the grocery store in Los Angeles.