Where The Rainbow Lotus Grows

At fourteen, Eliot Shen is handed a duffel bag and shown the door after coming out as gay. His parents — devout in a faith that has no room for who he is — ask him to leave. With almost nothing, he boards a bus headed south toward the only place he believes a door might still be open: his grandmother Mae’s small red house in Mira, Oregon.What Eliot finds there becomes his life. Mae is a Buddhist woman of quiet conviction who has spent thirty-five years cultivating a rare rainbow lotus — a flower that blooms in every color at once. Her neighbor Clara makes rainbow pies from persimmon and lotus nectar, a flavor so extraordinary no one who tastes it can find words for it. Together, these two women give Eliot something he has never had: a home where love requires no explanation.But years later, when Mae falls gravely ill, the father who once turned Eliot away returns — and the absence of a single legal document threatens to undo everything she wanted for her final days.A novel about chosen family, the law’s blind spots, and what it means to bloom,Written by a physician and proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. Read more