This book is the sixth collection in Hong Zeng's series of lyrical and philosophical short stories, all centered on the theme of youth. Nearly every story draws its central ideas and imagery from the creative vision and imaginative world of the author's own poetry. "Chrysalis" tells the story of an adolescent love that can never be fulfilled. The unattainable beloved becomes the emblem of the female protagonist's lifelong yearning, defined by inaccessibility and symbolically expanded to a cosmic scale through the coexistence of fire and ice. "Wolfskin Jacket" portrays a lonely young girl who seeks a sympathetic listener in a roguish young man. Unexpectedly, he assumes the role of a confessional priest, while the tavern in which they meet takes on the spiritual aura of a church. "A Place Called Morning" recounts the tragic death of a schoolgirl. After her death, her boyfriend plants a tree seed deep in the mountains as a living tribute to her. "Variations on a Dream of Memory" follows a man's recollections of his childhood sweetheart, whose ethereal, poetic imagination ultimately ends in her untimely death. "Vulture" depicts the transformation of a sensitive, imaginative boy into a callous, profit-driven man, much to the dismay and disappointment of his childhood girlfriend. The three stories "Process," "Four Seasons," and "Twilight Wilderness" all trace the journeys of their female protagonists from the dreams of girlhood to the disillusionments of middle age. "Dust Lamp" tells the story of a woman betrayed by her closest school friend and the enduring emotional wound left by that betrayal. Hong Zeng holds two Ph.D. degrees in literature and taught literature for thirteen years at Carleton College and Hamline University in Minnesota. She has published five books and dozens of essays on literary criticism, and is also the author of a bilingual collection of poetry in English and Chinese.
