Jan Lowe Shinebourne has produced a remarkable novel based on three fundamental factors. The first is that the Chinese indentured experience and beyond has rarely been addressed or examined non-fictionally. The second is that Chinese inter-cultural relations are practically unknown in Guyana, especially since a majority of them have migrated. [ . . . ] The third is that the novel shows how Chinese immigrants have struggled with issues of cultural retention and cultural assimilation in a foreign land.