From Publishers Weekly In this strangely beautiful， haunting first novel， Canadian poet Bowering sets her hero， half-Chinese boat pilot Robert Lam， adrift on a voyage around Vancouver Island with the ghost or spirit of Lam Fan， his just-deceased 100-year-old stepmother. Their taunting， fiercely loving relationship propels Robert on a reluctant journey of self-discovery. He learns the full story of his mother， idealistic reformer India Thackery， an emigre from Hong Kong who aided lepers on a Canadian island colony and suffered a terrible death. He realizes that India's husband， Robert Louis Haack， a robber and paid informer on Chinese illegal immigrants， was not his real father. In unmasking the surprise of his true paternity， Robert gradually comes to accept himself. The cadenced narative yields its secrets slowly as the action shifts between Canada， China and California， and from the 1890s to the 1950s. In Lam Fan， the ruefully wise matriarch， Bowering has created a magnificent character， at once mythical and human. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information， Inc. From Library Journal In the spring of 1957， Robert Lam buries his ancient foster mother， Lam Fan， and sails alone up the coast of Vancouver Island to consider his future. When Fan's spirit appears in a rustle of old silks and a whiff of opium， Robert Lam is forced to seek his past: his English mother's birth in 19th-century Hong Kong and mysterious death in British Columbia， the identity of his Chinese father， and the fate of the American who was his mother's husband for a single day. Canadian poet Bowering winds this intriguing adventure through whaling station， opium den， and leper colony， teaching a painful lesson in the history of Chinese immigrants to the New World. Recommended for public libraries.- Maurice Taylor， Brunswick Cty. Lib.， Southport， N.C.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information， Inc.