E-Books →The Phoenix Pencil Company A Novel

Monica Tsai spendsmostdaysonhercomputer,journaling the detailsof herordinarylife andcoding for a program that seeks to connect strangersonline.Aself-proclaimed recluse, she's alwaysstruggled to make friends and, as acollege freshman,finds herself escaping intoadigital world, countingthe days until she can return hometoher beloved grandparents.They are now in their nineties,and Monica worries aboutthemconstantly-especially her grandmother,Yun, whosurvivedtwo wars inChinabeforecomingto theStates, and whose memory has begun to fade.
ThoughYun rarely speaksofher past,Monicais determinedtofindthelong-lostcousin she wasseparated fromyears ago.One day, theveryprogramMonica ishelping to buildconnects her to a young woman,whosegift of a single pencilholds a surprising clue.Monica's discoveryof ahidden family history is exquisitely braided withYun's ownmemoriesas she writes of heryearsin Shanghai,working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. AsWWII ragesoutside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learnofaspecialpowerthe womenintheir family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil's words.Butwhenthe governmentuncoverstheir secret, they areforced into a life ofespionage, betraying other people's storiesto survive.
Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form ofA Tale for the Time Beingwith the uplifting, emotional magic ofThe Midnight Library,AllisonKing's stunning debut novel asks:who owns and inherits ourstories?The answers andsecrets that surface on the pagemay have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.