



A S WITH TRUE STORIES , Venus’s story has no beginning.
As with fantasy, her tale weaves through everything.
The book about her—this book you are holding in your hands right now—will open with Kinchen and Pip and, soon enough, Caesar. We’ll arrive at Thanh much, much later. Because it is sometimes the nature of books to tell things in what seems to be the wrong order.
Don’t forget Thanh. He’s coming. And Venus: will be here all along.