Jose Daniel Fierro interrupts his work on a novel (this one, in fact) in order to investigate the disappearance of a young female basketball player from the U.S., whom he has adored from afar. His path is crossed by spies, notorious anarchists, and crime reporters as the action shifts between 1920s Barcelona and Mexico City. Leonardo da Vinci's invention of the bicycle, 400 years before the first was built, looms over the entire story as a paradigm which "had demonstrated the impossibility of the realm of the impossible, and had thereby thrown open the door to hope."

Hector Belascoaran Shayne is back and looking for a multi-aliased gun runner who is being tracked by a CIA-linked reporter, supposedly because he caused the suicide of somebody's sister. Confusing? Hector thinks so, but nevertheless, the intrepid Mexico City detective tracks the man called Estrella from Acapulco to Tijuana, through murderous mariachi bands and other hilarious settings pausing only when he runs out of his favorite beverage, Coca Cola.

A grandmother writes a series of letters to her granddaughter describing her ways of overcoming generations of pain. "Follow Your Heart," a tremendous best-seller in Italy, won that country's Premio Donna Citta di Roma.

Pearl gradually comes to understand her mother Jiang Weili (Winnie) as a heroic survivor, not a troublesome anachronism, as they begin to reveal secrets about themselves to one another. Winnie tells the story of how she escaped a horrible marriage to a cowardly fighter pilot in the Sino-Japanese war and how he may or may not be Pearl's father. Meanwhile Pearl gathers the strength confide her great secret, that she has multiple sclerosis, to her mother.

Olivia is 3 years old when she discovers she has a half-sister, Kwan, who lives in China. When Kwan arrives to join the family, she reveals her secret to Olivia--she has visions and communicates with ghosts. Many years later, Kwan tries to encourage Olivia not to give up on her marriage to Simon and convinces them both to travel to China with her. In this evocative setting, Kwan has her most disturbing and revealing visions about her own and her sister's past lives.

Ruth Young and Art Kamen live together in San Francisco, and the deterioration of their relationships renders Ruth unable to speak. Her Chinese mother, LuLing, who now has Alzheimer's, is another complicating factor in her life, but the diary she kept as a young woman still exists, and when Ruth reads it she comes to a better understanding of her family's dark history, her mother's sadness, and her own problems. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.

This accessible science biography explores the life of laser-technology inventor Gordon Gould and his 30-year battle to obtain the copyright for his invention. While providing a colorful tour through Gould's experiences in academia and the courtroom, the book stresses the importance of rewarding innovation with monetary gain and professional recognition.