Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

From the first cutlass clash to the last quiet prayer at the water’s edge, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a fierce, human portrait of China’s legendary pirate queen, Shek Yeung. When her husband, the feared commander Cheng Yat, falls in battle, she must outthink hungry rivals, bend a fragile alliance to her will, and secure her survival the only way the world understands—by holding the line. Guided and haunted by the sea goddess Ma-Zou, Shek Yeung navigates wars with the Qing navy, entanglements with Dutch and Portuguese powers, and dangerous affiliations inside her own fleet. She bargains with firepower and mercy, enforces rules that protect the vulnerable, and hides the most personal truth of all—her pregnancy—while planning raids, ransoms, and impossible escapes. This is a story of grit and devotion, of mothers and found families, of devotion that runs as deep as the ocean and choices that stain as red as its tides. It reads like a 30-minute storm—fast, vivid, and unforgettable.

• Listeners who love high-stakes historical fiction with a razor-sharp heroine
• Fans of political strategy and moral complexity on the high seas
• Book clubs seeking a vivid story about leadership, motherhood, and survival

Rita Chang-Eppig holds an MFA from NYU. Her fiction appears in McSweeney’s, Conjunctions, Clarkesworld, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories 2021, and more. A Rona Jaffe Foundation recipient with fellowships from Bread Loaf and Vermont Studio Center, she writes stories that fold myth, history, and grit into living characters. She lives in California.