Maria the nurse and nanny - invoking Haitian Voodoo to protect those she loves from her damaged, violent sister Andrea. And Michael - the wealthy man between them, fighting desperately to save his baby son and escape with the sister he truly loves. This exhilarating saga of love and revenge sweeps us from Hispaniola in 1916, where the sisters' family originated in poverty and slavery, to the lurking drug culture of Balboa, Panama, and finally, to the United States. The ripples of the sisters' family history spread insidiously and threaten all that Michael has built. Will the Voodoo that was meant to protect save them? Or will it finally bring disaster upon Michael, Maria, and everything they love?

These fifteen short stories dive deeply into reality looking to pull out new senses. They have the ability to show - especially what cannot be told. Tales of the feminine world, the natural world and of freedom (or the lack of it) open up the blinds to let us see beyond everyday's acts and wordly rites; to let us see beyond words and gestures.

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It is just before World War II and Kasumi Kenshiro hides as a quiet, absent-minded professor teaching literature at a small women's college in Tokyo. Once the 62nd Grand Master of Kohuto Shinken, "God Fist of the North Star," and known as Yan Wang, or "the king of Death" who preserved the peace in the City of Devils, a fighter of thugs and drug dealers, Kasumi now seeks anonymity and a quiet life until the death of his lover, and former brothers, forces him to return to Shanghai to fulfill his destiny and avenge the deaths of his associates.