Now the Leongs' survival rests with young Theresa, Frank Leong's only grandchild, eighteen and pregnant, the heir apparent to her ancestors' punishing knots. Still, the island continues to whisper-fragmented pieces of truth and chatter, until a letter arrives two decades later, carrying a confession that shatters the family even further. Left to rebuild in their patriarch's shadow, the surviving members of the Leong family try their hand at a new, ordinary life, vowing to bury their gilded past. When Frank Leong is murdered, his family is thrown into a perilous downward spiral. The parable of the red string of fate, the cord that binds one intended beloved to her perfect match, also punishes for mistakes in love, passing a destructive knot down the family line. But something ancient follows the Leongs to Hawaii, haunting them. (Apr.'Diamond Head is an intricate meditation on what is in our control and what is fate-and on whether children must bear the costs of their parents' mistakes.' -Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires EverywhereĪt the turn of the nineteenth century, Frank Leong, a fabulously wealthy shipping industrialist, moves his family from China to the island of Oahu. Agent: Meredith Kaffel, DeFiore and Company. While some of the incidents are a bit predictable, Wong perceptively captures her cast of characters and their setting. Lin’s choice of the lower-class, strong-minded Amy sets in motion a chain of events, including murder, that threaten the Leongs’ stability. This is where the tension finally ratchets up. When Bohai grows into a virtual recluse, Lin decides to find a wife for him. After moving to the titular location (a volcano on the outskirts of Honolulu), wife Lin delivers the son, Kaipo, she had long vowed to give to her husband Frank. Most of the characters have secrets rooted in the family’s past in Guangdong, China, where Bohai was born in 1909 to a prosperous businessman, Frank, and his concubine, Hailee. Capable aunt Hong helps manage the day and watches over Bohai’s emotionally crippled mother, Lin. Shocked by Bohai’s unexpected death, his wife, Amy, is still coming to terms with her teenage daughter Theresa’s out-of-wedlock pregnancy.

It opens in Honolulu in 1964 as friends and family gather for Bohai Leong’s funeral. Told from multiple points of view and moving back and forth in time over several generations of the Leong family, the story centers on how people remain tied to one another.

Wong’s earnest debut novel is a sweeping family saga in the tradition of Amy Tan.

Diamond head by cecily wong