In May, we celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, marking the enormous contributions of the AAPI community in all areas of our life. The same is true in literature! In this reading list, we highlight some of the newest and most popular books by AAPI authors in the Topsfield Town Library collection!
Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin
“A boldly imagined debut novel about three Vietnamese siblings who seek refuge in the UK, expanding into a luminous meditation on ancestry and love…Wandering Souls captures the lives of a family marked by war and loss yet relentless in the pursuit of a better future.”
Chlorine by Jade Song
“A debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale and is told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies.”
Paper Names by Susie Luo
“Chinese-born engineer Tony, now a Manhattan doorman. Tony’s first-generation daughter, Tammy, caught between her dreams and her family’s ambitions for her. And Oliver, a handsome white lawyer in Tony’s building contending with his family’s troubled past. As their stories unfold over three decades, they are brought together by a terrible act of violence.”
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
A propulsive, gripping new novel about fate, art, exploitation, and intimacy by the award-winning author of Where Reasons End.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto
When she discovers a dead man in the middle of her tea shop, Vera Wong, a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands, calls the police but not before swiping the flash drive from the body, setting a trap for the killer that becomes complicated by unexpected friendships with her customers.
Flux by Jinwoo Chong
Brandon experiences his reality unraveling when he begins losing chunks of time and finding himself in an apartment he doesn’t recognize, and starts to suspect his new employers have discovered time travel and are covering up violent crimes.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
After the death of her literary rival in a freak accident, author June Hayward steals her just-finished masterpiece, sending it to her agent as her own work, but as emerging evidence threatens her success, she discovers just how far she’ll go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, The Covenant of Water is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: in every generation, at least one person dies by drowning-and in Kerala, water is everywhere.
Central Places by Delia Cai
A young woman returns home to Illinois from Manhattan to introduce her Chinese immigrant parents to her white fiance in a disastrous weekend where she runs into her unrequited high school crush and complicates matters further.
Isha, Unscripted by Sajni Patel
Isha Patel, An aspiring screenwriter trying to follow her dreams, attempts to track down fellow Austenite Matthew McConaughey to pitch her script and her search turns into a night of hijinks and unexpected but fun chaos.
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
A young Indian woman falsely rumored to have killed her husband finds a way to make her unfortunate reputation surprisingly useful–but complications arise when other village women seek her help offing their husbands–in this provocative, razor-sharp debut.
The Chinese Groove by Kathryn Ma
Eighteen-year-old Shelley, born into a much-despised branch of the Zheng family in Yunnan Province and living in the shadow of his widowed father’s grief, dreams of bigger things. Buoyed by an exuberant heart and his cousin Deng’s tall tales about the United States, Shelley heads to San Francisco to claim his destiny, confident that any hurdles will be easily overcome by the awesome powers of the “Chinese groove,” a belief in the unspoken bonds between countrymen that transcend time and borders.
