Evelyn Skyeโs grandparents used to visit their family in California every year from Taiwan, bringing a box full of origami cranes as gifts for the children.
โThe paper my grandmother used was gorgeously patterned, with silver or gold woven in,โ recalls the writer. โIt was so special because she made them with love for us. I had chains of them strung corner to corner across my bedroom ceiling. I still think back to the journey these cranes took across the ocean.โ
That memory is at the heart of Skyeโs new novel and 10th book, The Incredible Kindness of Paper.
In it, the protagonist, Chloe Hanako Quinn, a New York high school guidance counsellor beset by all sorts of challenges, begins leaving little origami roses all over town, each carrying an uplifting message and quietly changing lives. One of them finds its way to a young man from Chloeโs past.
Skye, a New York Times bestselling novelist whose parents immigrated to the US from Taiwan, has written novels spanning childrenโs, young adult and adult categories. One of her books, Damsel, became a Netflix film.