Abacus

From war-torn Wuhan to postwar Taiwan and the promise of America, ABACUS is a sweeping historical family saga about survival, ambition, sacrifice, and the debts love leaves behind.At fourteen, Huang J¿nchéng learns that numbers can save a life. Cigarettes become currency. Ledgers become maps. Every choice carries a cost.Forced from home by war, J¿nchéng journeys across a fractured China with little more than his mother's instructions, his father's quiet pride, and the belief that order can still be found in a world coming apart. In Taiwan, he builds a life with M¿ilán, rising through discipline, intelligence, and relentless calculation.But success brings its own burdens. Family expectations harden into obligation. Political division reshapes old loyalties. Migration opens the door to America but carries the family's wounds across the ocean. And what J¿nchéng earns can never fully repay what was lost.Across decades and continents, ABACUS follows one family through war, exile, marriage, parenthood, betrayal, and the search for home.Rich with cultural memory, intimate detail, and the ache of Asian American immigration, Hudson Wei's ABACUS is a novel about what families inherit, what they owe, and whether any life can ever truly be balanced.