Yellowfish

Wesley Erks, itinerant machinist and "high class jack-of-all-trades," takes a hefty fee for smuggling a group of illegal Chinese immigrants ("yellowfish") from Vancouver, B.C., to San Francisco in the 1970s. Three are teenaged "Hong Kong boys," one of whom has been grievously injured. The fourth, a fugitive and the son of a rich Chinese casino owner, means to settle a grudge with a Chinese American secret society, the Triad, but is himself being pursued. The tale of the perilous journey of these five men, along with a woman who becomes implicated in a double-cross, is filled with vivid fictional and historical characters. The whole of it conjures the story of the West itself. John Keeble is the author of four novels, including "Yellowfish" and "Broken Ground," a collection of short stories, "Nocturnal America," and a work of nonfiction, "Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound."

"A novel of grandeur and daring, a book of fierce pleasures. Its themes are those that have occupied the great story-tellers from the beginning: the journey of self-discovery, danger and self reliance." - Raymond Carver

"A complex, almost Faulknerian portrait of the Pacific Northwest--as beautiful and mysterious as the area itself. It is also a hell of a good read." - James Welch

"Its surface is a stunning story of survival; its depth is the American journey to the West. They reflect each other, for "Yellowfish" is a new version of how the West was and is won by lost people. A bright vision of the morals of necessity, beautifully told." - Mary Lee Settle

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John Keeble is the author of four novels, including Yellowfish and Broken Ground, a collection of short stories, Nocturnal America, and a work of nonfiction, Out of the Channel: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound.