Pillow has physicality and charisma in spades, characteristics that carry through to the novel as a whole. Great fighters also have personality – an automaton can't dance. Great boxers possess a kinetic intelligence so rare it goes unacknowledged: cerebral thinking might dismiss the idea, but it's possible to think with one's body. General opinion of Pillow is that he's taken too many hits to the head, which may be true. Added complication: It's contemporary, but this criminal syndicate is run by the Surrealists: Gwynn Apollinaire, Louis Aragon, Georges Bataille, et. Pillow is about a large-hearted former professional boxer nicknamed Pillow, now working as an enforcer for the mob but looking to get out after his girlfriend becomes pregnant. Still, its immersive depiction of Taoist tradition and one historical Chinatown is likely to inspire further reading. This page-turner shouldn't be taken as non-fiction. As it turned out, the novel it most reminded me of was Frank Busch's Grey Eyes, from last year – another suspenseful, tightly plotted story about magic outside the European tradition. A Superior Man is meant as historical fiction, though, and while thorough research backs The Girl with Ghost Eyes, it's marketed as fantasy. In both, white people play mere bit parts, a refreshing change. Both concern saving face and questions of belonging in late-19th-century North American Chinese communities. The Girl with Ghost Eyes shares much with Paul Yee's A Superior Man, also published this year. Boroson's imaginative, adventure-filled debut. Li-lin, a young woman gifted with the ability to see the spirit world, must battle a powerful sorcerer to save San Francisco's Chinatown in M.H.

The Girl with No Face by M.H. Boroson