—As mothers, wives, sisters, and women, we sometimes follow others’ and sometimes follow our own lead.

“Where did I come from?” he asked me one day in his soft voice. I was prepared to push back on his question a couple of times. But, if by the third time I believed him truly interested to know the answer, I planned to look him seriously in the eyes and tell him: “I spat you out!” This is your mother’s story…I mean…if you really want to hear more. All women have endured pain. As mothers, wives, sisters, and women, we sometimes follow others’ and sometimes follow our own lead. Author Ni-er Hao’s works plumb the intimate trials and tribulations of womanhood, taking her readers in almost close enough to smell the scents wafting up from her protagonists’ pores.