A gripping family narrative about the debt we owe to our ancestors and descendants, from an unforgettable new voice. 'A part of me knew what the hungry ghosts wanted from the beginning, what they still want. It's not revenge. No, they want something else, but we refuse to listen. They want us to acknowledge our shattered obligations.' Every spring during the Qingming Festival, people return to their ancestral villages in China to clean the graves of their ancestors, making offerings of food and incense to prevent the hunger of ghosts that could cause misfortune. However, over the past century, a period marked by war and revolution, many graves have been left untended. Following a record year of forest fires, Alice Mah returns to her family's rice village in southern China and discovers that her ancestors are almost forgotten, with no graves to clean. Instead, there are countless family debts that need to be paid. Here, Mah chronicles her journey from the rice villages of southern China to her home in post-industrial England, through the Chinatowns of Western Canada where she grew up, to the islands and industries of Scotland where she now lives. As the years pass and fires ravage the regions, she becomes increasingly concerned about the neglected graves of her ancestors. Her research on pollution takes a back seat to a growing ecological concern, culminating in a crisis of spiritual faith. A haunting blend of memoir, cultural history, and environmental exploration, Red Pockets confronts the hungry ghosts of our neglected ancestors, seeking an acceptable offering. What do we owe to past and future generations? What do we owe to the places we inhabit?