This is a difficult book to describe, because it's not about the plot, it's about the main character. And the main character isn't the star of every chapter. The book alternates between Zhang's POV and other characters who have interacted with him, but often very tangentially, so that he barely appears in their chapters at all.

Really, this is a novel about the growth of a young man in a future time. Zhang begins as a blue collar worker in a United States which is no longer a superpower- China is ascendant in this future. As the book progresses, Zhang goes to work in the Arctic and makes enough money and does well enough on tests to be able to go to China for an education in engineering. Since Zhang is ABC (American-Born Chinese), he feels acutely self-conscious about where he belongs. He looks Chinese and tries to act Chinese in the US, but feels really out of place culturally and economically in China. Zhang is also gay, which is still enough to get him executed in China, although he rapidly finds an underground gay culture and a lover there.

Eventually, Zhang becomes an organic architect of an engineer, able to visualize buildings with his mind which can then be specced out and built by powerful computer programs and 3-D printers. He returns to the States, even though he has job possibilities in China, and looks for work while teaching.

Alternately, we get chapters of a kite racer who jacks herself into her kite in order to "feel" the kite and get an advantage in races. We visit a Martian colony and a female military veteran who ends up taking a refugee family into her farm and her heart. We find out more about a Chinese girl that Zhang once dated. All of these vignettes flesh out this future world and the people in it, and broaden the scope of the book.

Really, this is a book about how most people live and work, which is why it can feel odd while you're reading it. There isn't a suspenseful plot, but most people do not spend their lives on a 24 hour countdown to disaster. They go day by day, trying to figure out the best options for themselves and how to get the most out of their lives.

I really enjoyed the book because of the masterful and subtle world-building, the well-constructed characterization of Zhang, and the way that McHugh looked ahead in 1992 to see the future ramifications of climate change, economics, and technology. I was always eager to pick up the book to see what happened next, which I think is a masterful achievement for an author who deliberately chose to forego drama for patient building of her vision of the future. I could also relate to a character who never quite felt like he could be totally himself because of prejudice against parts of who he was- American, Chinese, non-communist, gay- all were part of him but he felt he could only show the parts of himself that were safe to display.