Night Flower

A Novel Mira sighed. "It's not easy to bring a stranger into your home, Chaiky. And you don't need more problems on your head right now." "But Ima," her daughter said gently, "Anna wasn't a stranger. You knew her very well, at least by the time she came to live with you." Mira took a deep breath. Chaiky had honed right in on the reason for her hesitation, even before she herself could put her finger on it. Chaiky was right: she didn't like the idea because of Anna. It's a lonely and frightening existence for Chaiky Struk, with her husband far away, incarcerated in Russia due to a set-up by the Mafia. The niggling knowledge that the whole terrible saga could have been prevented makes the blow even harsher, especially for a woman as meticulously organized, responsible, and efficient as herself. Just as Chaiky feels that her life cannot become any worse, it does, in the form of a new co-worker named Noa who, from the outset, seems intent on putting Chaiky down. Then, into this roiling cauldron, steps Rachel, a young, seemingly guileless teenager in need of a home. Despite her parents' bad experience with Anna, the girl they'd invited to live in their home, Chaiky decides to take Rachel in as a boarder. Never does she dream of the vast, life-changing impact this move will have, on both herself and her family... Night Flower is the deeply touching, emotionally charged, yet intensely suspenseful story of a family in crisis who learns that often, it's during the darkest of nights that one's inner mettle shines brightest. by Esther Rapaport