After teacher Vasant Dashpande published a “revolutionary newsletter that railed against the injustices of the British occupiers,” he was nearly beaten to death by soldiers in British India. He heads to Bellingham, Washington, to escape the authorities and earn money working in a lumber mill. Upon arrival, he and his younger sister, Vinita (who joined him in order to escape their stifling village), along with other Indian workers, are met with suspicion due to racist stereotypes and long-simmering local political tensions. Henry Terwilliger, the managing editor of a failing local newspaper, conjures the idea of a “Hindoo invasion” to bolster his readership, deriding “the Hindoo of the subtropical Indian jungles, a most despicable creature indeed.” These reports and the mill’s dismal, unequal working conditions set the stage for violence: Patel, the siblings’ friend, loses his hand to a saw because of the actions of a white worker, and Vinita herself becomes the victim of an assault. The only bright spot in Vasant’s life is Li, a Chinese maidservant, whom he’s teaching to read English. The press continues to demonize South Asian laborers as the months pass, but it’s the anti-Asian Labor Day rally, headed by the Asiatic Exclusion League, that pushes the town over the tipping point. Riots, arson, kidnapping, and racist violence soon erupt. Arab’s historical novel about the 1907 Bellingham race riot effectively and starkly portrays what one character calls the “caste system based on race” in pre–World War I America, using straightforward prose and bare-bones worldbuilding. Overall, the story packs a significant emotional punch with its matter-of-fact depiction of brutal bigotry, poverty, and violence. That said, many of the characters feel underdeveloped, and there’s little detail to make any of the players stand out. Some of them veer close to caricature, such as Terwilliger, whose manner is that of a mustache-twirling silent-movie villain.