Sign-In
Cart
Music Never Far Away
Hardcover
Publisher: Booknality
Published: Mar 5 2026
Pages: 264
Weight: 1.43
Height: 0.88 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Music Never Far Away is a landmark collection comprising eleven short stories and one novella, representing the essence of Sha Shi's two decades of literary work. Distinct from many other works of immigrant or bilingual literature, Sha Shi does not center his narratives around issues of identity politics or cultural displacement. Instead, he turns his lens inward to explore the universal tensions of human nature. Whether his characters are Chinese or American, male or female, their struggles and contradictions arise from the shared fabric of humanity.
In the title story, Music Never Far Away, the narrator and Zhang Yi-he share a complicated bond, part friendship, part rivalry, united by their passion for Beatles music but divided by the ways they pursue it. When the narrator misconstrues Zhang Yi-he's intentions and feels betrayed, he sets out to seek revenge, only to discover that Zhang's love for the music runs even deeper than his own. Ironically, just when they seem destined to part ways for good, a deeper emotional understanding draws them back together.
Once My Dog, Always My Dog is a playful comedy in which the narrator forms an unexpectedly deep attachment to a dog he is only meant to care for temporarily. His bond with the animal blinds him to the subtle manipulations of those around him, drawing him into an absurd but tender web of misunderstanding and affection.
The novella Heaven-Woman-Grasshopper leans more heavily into tragedy territory, though its tone still carries traces of humor. It follows the narrator and Eggplant, childhood sweethearts who grew up together in China. Their love seems fated, yet life repeatedly separates them through a series of cruel twists. Even after both immigrate to the U.S., they remain apart, he in San Francisco, she in Maine. The two grasshoppers tied to the same string yet dangling at opposite ends. When he learns that Eggplant is lost to him forever, he is shattered, resorting to crime as a desperate act of self-consolation.
This collection will move you to both laughter and tears and even the tears are laced with a bittersweet tenderness that lingers long after the final page.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Lu, Jay
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Erdoes, Richard
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover