New York Times bestselling author’s new novel recalls origami cranes she received as a kid
Evelyn Skye says her 10th book, The Incredible Kindness of Paper, is an important story right now with its roots in human connection
Evelyn Skye’s grandparents used to visit their family in California every year from Taiwan, bringing a box full of origami cranes as gifts for the children.
“The paper my grandmother used was gorgeously patterned, with silver or gold woven in,” recalls the writer. “It was so special because she made them with love for us. I had chains of them strung corner to corner across my bedroom ceiling. I still think back to the journey these cranes took across the ocean.”
That memory is at the heart of Skye’s new novel and 10th book, The Incredible Kindness of Paper.
In it, the protagonist, Chloe Hanako Quinn, a New York high school guidance counsellor beset by all sorts of challenges, begins leaving little origami roses all over town, each carrying an uplifting message and quietly changing lives. One of them finds its way to a young man from Chloe’s past.
Skye, a New York Times bestselling novelist whose parents immigrated to the US from Taiwan, has written novels spanning children’s, young adult and adult categories. One of her books, Damsel, became a Netflix film.