House of the Winds is a portrait of a family and a nation struggling to recover from the tumultuous long years of Japanese rule and the Korean War -- and the story of one dreaming mother and her listening daughter. Young Wife is a magic-wand mother who tells stories of the time when tigers smoked pipes. One day her white summer blouse runs deep red, mango-red and azalea pink. Who knows from where this sudden sadness sprouted?

Her youngest daughter is our guide through a world in which even birds cry instead of sing ("Everything cried and cried beautifully in Korea"). An American electric iron is so powerful it sets off a coup d'etat. Grandfather dies with a crab-apple in his mouth.

Mia Yun invites her readers into the "folds of history" where Korean women, the descendants of the she-bear woman and the son of the king of heaven, live... "laughing, wailing, spirit-cajoling, poetry-writing, tear-hiding, bosom-bracing, scheming, fire-breathing."