My Dear You

In these provocative stories, Khong (The Real Americans) offers well-wrought and intricate depictions of Asian American and Asian life, often with a fantastical or speculative twist. “Serene” follows a worker at a Chinese factory for AI-powered sex dolls who grows attached to a doll whom she trains in conversation. In the wry “Colors from Elsewhere,” a woman recovering from a miscarriage learns from her acupuncturist, Dr. Tang, and Dr. Tang’s philosopher sister, that she’s an alien, prompting her to ask the Tangs, who are Asian and share that they are also aliens, “Is every Asian an alien?” Two stories, “The Freshening” and “D Day,” revolve around society-wide transformations: in the former, the U.S. government administers injections to make everyone look white; in the latter, God grows frustrated with the human race’s wanton destruction and turns everyone into animals. The less successful stories don’t develop beyond their conceits. “The Family O” falters under the weight of the elaborate revenge plot at its center, while “Good Spirits,” about a haunted rubber-glove factory, rushes its ending. Throughout, Khong writes about her characters’ ambivalence with precision, as when the protagonist of “Colors from Eleswhere” is “troubled” to realize that she’s “beginning to feel like herself again.” There’s much to admire in this assured collection. Agent: Marya Spence, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)