Hopeful monsters

""Hopeful monsters" are genetically abnormal organisms that, nonetheless, adapt and survive in their environments. In these stories, the hopeful monsters in question are those who will not be tethered by familial duty nor bound by the ghosts of their past." "Home becomes fraught, reality a nightmare as Hiromi Goto weaves her characters through tales of domestic crises and cultural dissonance. They are the walking wounded - a mother who is terrified by a newborn daughter who bears a tail; a "stinky girl" who studies the human condition in a shopping mall; relatives on holiday with a visiting grandfather who cannot abide their "foreign" nature. But wills are a force unto themselves, and Goto's characters are imbued with the light of myth and magic-realism."--BOOK JACKET.