Stay True

When someone dies young, it’s hard to get an awful image or two out of your head. In Hua Hsu’s new book, one such moment is described in a legal document that Hsu finds online. It details how his close college friend was abducted and ordered into the trunk of his own car, robbed, and killed. The crime is random, petty, and careless. Six merciless words—“he had begged for his life”—appear on page 178 of Hsu’s memoir and threaten to blot out everything that came before.