Another effective tale drawing on Chinese culture, following his ‘The Literomancer’ (F&SF Oct 2010 – reviewed here and ‘Tying Knots’ (Clarkesworld Magazine Jan 2011 – rreviewed here).

Here a man with an American father and Chinese mother reflects on his relationship with her. Her father brought her back from China, a mail order bride, and as a teenager the son began to have contempt rather than love for her. The early days, where she uses old family magic to animate origami animals she makes, are poignant, and following her death, it is her words, written on the very paper of these animals, that allow him to reflect on their relationship, and to fully understand her life’s journey.