SCPL Reads: Family sagas

Sneaking out to get readings from a traveling psychic reputed to be able to tell customers when they will die, four adolescent siblings from New York City's 1969 Lower East Side hide what they learn from each other before embarking on five decades of respective experiences shaped by their determination to control fate.

Lina and her father arrive at an enclave called The Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions. In this mysterious and shape-shifting place, a building made of time, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her neighbors: Bento, a Jewish scholar in seventeenth-century Amsterdam; Blucher, a philosopher in 1930s Germany fleeing Nazi persecution; and Jupiter, a poet of Tang Dynasty China.

As Kyungha braves a treacherous snowstorm on Jeju Island to save her injured friend's pet, she unwittingly embarks on a journey that blurs reality and memory, uncovering a hidden chapter of Korean history, and the enduring power of friendship amidst forgotten violence.

Ebby Freeman's life unravels when her brother is killed and a centuries-old family heirloom is shattered. But, years later, while fleeing a public breakup, she uncovers how that lost, shattered jar may hold secrets to her future.