I Believe in Fortune Cookies: Stories

Written during his convalescence from leukemia and a bone marrow transplant, this short story collection reflects the sublimation of a tortuous soul, distilled into an elixir with deadly effects. These stories begin harmlessly with a coffee with Dante at the Piazza della Signoria and traverse a diverse landscape of impossible settings, from the nostalgic 1960s of Hong Kong to the space fantasy of the Cassini age, and from the ancient shrines of the Togugawa to the ultra-modern city of Shanghai. A whirlwind of emotions and unexpected twists and turns echo from a pit of depravity to an exuberant appreciation of life, capturing the innocence of a river pig to the obsessive possessiveness of a neurotic, all told with a touch of wry humor. They culminate in a horror story of sexual enslavement, a metaphor for the entrapped state the writer felt about his milieu, and ultimately resolve in a euphoric Fellini moment, in a recliner where most of these stories were written. Together, they form a tsunami of emotions every reader can relate to.I Believe in Fortune Cookies shows with great flair, depth and surreal imagination, how the mind can work in mysterious, haunting, and creative ways, in spite of facing an unexpected life and death challenge.Richard Yu’s collection is a testament to the human spirit we should all applaud.––David TabatskyAuthor, Write for Life: Communicating Your Way Through CancerA portion of the proceeds from sales of this book will be donated to the Cancer Institute of New Jersey.