BRIDGE ACROSS THE SKY

Despair and hope mingle in this free-verse novel set in the Angel Island detention center in 1924.

The destruction of birth records as a result of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake meant that immigrants from China could attempt to elude the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act by claiming to be related to Chinese residents already in the U.S. Seventeen-year-old T.G., who’s arrived with his father and grandfather, is one of many people shuffled off to the barracks. There, he waits for his interview with an immigration officer who will scrutinize his “paper story.” The living conditions are unpleasant: The men sleep in cramped rooms, consume tasteless meals, and suffer at the hands of callous guards. Carved into the walls around them are poems composed by those who came before, expressing the same longing and misery felt by T.G. and his fellow immigrants. Day after day, T.G.’s father exhorts him to “jab the awl,” a phrase that evokes focus and self-discipline. But when T.G. stumbles upon a clandestine meeting of the Resistance—men seeking to effect change in the barracks—he decides to join their cause despite the risks of upsetting the status quo. The limited setting and the repetitive nature of each day in the barracks establish a distinct sense of place with a restrictive atmosphere. Moments of levity and genuine human connection ease the often bleak mood.

A vivid depiction of a lesser-known chapter in U.S history.