Hibiscus Mask

Book excerpt: What does it take to show our true self to the one we love? Kell is an American botanist working in Malaysia. He meets the engaging and alluring Nitti and is instantly smitten, but getting to know her is anything but straightforward. Open and childlike one moment, guarded and invulnerable the next, she ducks and vacillates, and keeps Kell guessing why. Nitti’s mother lies paralyzed in a far corner of their home, tended by a sinister housekeeper who exerts a mystifying control over Nitti and her father. Still, Kell believes he’s found the woman of his dreams, and he perseveres. And Nitti seems to encourage him, leading him to a secret jungle sanctuary, then deeper, to the black waters of a swamp she calls “Keributan,” where a monstrous creature lurks . . . With lushly drawn metaphor and unflinching candor and empathy, Hibiscus Mask offers a gripping psychological mystery about the preconditions for love and the tragic cost of hidden identity.