A mother's missing child, a search for identity, and ever-changing notions of “home”—class and race intersect with belonging in this stunning debut novel of mothers, daughters, and best friends.
In June 2000, Mimi Truang is on her way home to Vietnam when her toddler daughter vanishes in the Philadelphia airport.
Seventeen years later, two best friends graduate from high school in the WASP-y town of Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania. Kit is half-Japanese, half-American, and interracially adopted by white well-to-do parents. Sabrina is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant single mother who brandishes strict household rules to hide her own secrets.
During that last summer before college, Kit travels to Tokyo, determined to uncover her Japanese identity. Her dizzying weeks in Tokyo offer her a critical distance from everything she holds dear—and a taste of first love that refines her understanding of what it means to belong.
Sabrina had hoped to take a similar trip to China, but money is tight. Her disappointment quickly subsides, however, as her bold, uncompromising boss becomes a mentor, prompting Sabrina to ask questions she’s avoided all her life. Meanwhile, Mimi purchases a plane ticket to Philadelphia. She finally has a lead to renew her search in the country where she and her daughter were parted.
When Mimi, Kit, and Sabrina come face-to-face at the end of this transformative summer, they will confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties.