Ties that bind

With Karina Yan Glaser’s latest offering, readers get a bonus—two stories that start out separately and gracefully blend into one. The first pages of The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli (Allida, 432 pp.) take us to China in A.D. 731. Han Yu, 10, follows in his father’s footsteps to sell steamed buns at the market, but he yearns for a talent like his siblings. He has an uncanny talent for summoning animals, particularly tigers. But it’s not helpful, especially as a mysterious illness infects their town and eventually his family.

Before we find out what happens to Han Yu, Glaser begins a different story. It’s Oct. 8, 1931, and Luli Lee, 7, is drooling as she daydreams about the dim sum at Jade Palace Restaurant, the Chinese eatery in New York City run by her parents. But Luli senses something is wrong. Fewer customers are coming, leaving her parents more worried.

Then we switch back to ancient China, where Han Yu’s family has fallen ill with tuberculosis. His father had promised to make an important delivery of precious goods, but now Han Yu realizes he must do it.

The book zigzags like this for the next 64 chapters. It’s like switching TV channels as Nine Moons flips between two countries, two time periods, two sets of pets, and two problems. But don’t worry: You won’t feel storyline whiplash.

We turn the page and Luli is brainstorming new ways to pay her parents’ rent. A family member walks her into the back room of the family’s failing gift shop and shows her the family heirlooms—small teacups, artwork, and three faded scraps of silk with poems written in Chinese. The effervescent Luli is perhaps too eager to help. Why not convert the back room of the gift shop into a small art museum and charge for admission? she thinks. She knows she’s biting off more than she can chew, but when others notice a foreclosure letter in the mail, the family considers some of her desperate ideas.

Han Yu’s story hits its stride when he takes off on an epic journey along the silk routes to deliver goods for his sick father. Along the way, he meets Du Fu, a young scholar who puts memories of misty mornings and verdant landscapes to verse in his journal. Readers familiar with Chinese history will recognize Du Fu matches the name of the real-life Chinese poet who penned hundreds of poems during the Tang dynasty. But none of us would know about Du Fu’s poetry unless it was passed on. Which brings us back to Luli, who believes firmly that the dirty scraps of silk in the back room of her family’s gift shop are worth something.

Glaser, known for her Vanderbeekers series, spent years researching both the real-life history of the silk routes and poor immigrant life in 1930s New York City Chinatown. She’s a New Yorker, and Chinese American, so it’s no surprise that she chose the settings. But Nine Moons isn’t just about being Chinese. It’s about how a person from the past can still have a profound effect on us today.