Princeton

Princeton is both the professional and personal setting for Li and her family. Li works at Princeton University, James is a student there at the time of his death, and the family home is located in the town. Their everyday lives and personal tragedies are situated within this single, tightly defined community.

Li Family Home

The Li family home, purchased shortly before Vincent’s death, is a site of poignant loss, as he never actually lived there. Li reflects on the home as a place carefully maintained and filled with love, meals, and family life, but its association with tragedy underscores the contrast between the life the family tried to build and the losses they endured.

China

China is the setting of Li’s formative and traumatic experiences, where she endured severe abuse both at home and at school. It is also the source of later external...