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May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage month, when we recognize the cultural presence and contributions of Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians. Below is a list of some exciting recent hardcover releases, along with recent and upcoming paperback releases, by writers of these identities.
AAPI month gives us a chance to both celebrate authors under this umbrella and to reflect on obstacles and limitations that still exist. While overall AAPI literary representation has risen over past decades, the full spectrum of that acronym (which sometimes is understood to include Middle Eastern Asian heritage, in addition to East, Southeast and South Asian ethnicities) remains less realized, both in terms of the need for more Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian inclusion as well as the need for increased nuance and diversity in AAPI literature as a whole, such as more LGBTQ+ books, more non-traditional narratives and more writing from non-East Asian AAPI authors. To that end, we aim with this list to bring you titles by people from a variety of backgrounds, as well as a range of genres, stories and subject matter. Enjoy!
Paperback Jun 18, 2024. 224 pages
Published by Vintage
In sharing Lahiri's characters' thoughts, we can recognize parts of ourselves in them. At the same time, her use of rich details contributes to the scene, even when these details aren't the focus of her story. In "P's Parties," about a mostly imagined love triangle dreamed up by a husband at a friend's party, vacation plans and bungalows by the sea evoke a picture of summer and the tradition of Ferragosto, a holiday for which Italians debunk to the beach or the mountains, creating a lovely setting for a story about possible budding infidelity to unfold. It is through the ingenuity of setting and character development together that Lahiri builds a sense of place and the feeling of being in Rome. (Pei Chen)
Paperback Jun 4, 2024. 336 pages
Published by Mariner Books
This is a captivating tale of three generations of Vietnamese American women, spanning two continents and encompassing the years just before and during the American War (known in the U.S. as the Vietnam War). Banyan Moon is one of the most poignant, heartwarming books I have read in quite a while (Sheila S). I loved each character and the way Thao Thai develops them literally and metaphorically. I really liked the way she goes back and forth from each, weaving an intense story of all the emotions humans deal with in life: love, hate, fear and hope. She makes the characters and settings come alive and totally engages the reader (Candace F). The mother-daughter relationships are so powerful, so real—sometimes so beautifully woven and other times so devastatingly fragile—that the book's power was a vital force (Theresa P).
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Hardcover May 2024. 400 pages
Published by Berkley Books
A mother and three daughters are left behind when the more powerful members of their Nationalist family flee to escape Communists during the revolution. The story is told from the perspective of the oldest daughter, Li Hai, and the author does an astonishing job of capturing the thoughts of an adolescent girl dealing with both inconceivable trauma and everyday concerns (Kathleen L). If a book taking place during a war can be called enjoyable, this is it. I say enjoyable based on the mother/daughter relationships, the three-dimensional characters and the rising above the circumstances, which almost makes the reader forget the horrors in favor of the power of the storyline (Marie M). Chung's writing is descriptive without being overly expansive. Daughters of Shandong was a real pleasure to read and I hope Chung continues to write (Laurie B).
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Hardcover Apr 2024. 416 pages
Published by Knopf
Over the course of the book, we meet May, her daughter Lily, and her grandson Nick. May, who flees China's Cultural Revolution and the persecution of scientists and academics, is driven by a passion for understanding gene expression. As the title suggests, the book explores what it means to be a "real American." Each of the three main characters feels excluded in some way: one doesn't look the part; one looks the part but feels different from his peers; one's past life and language is just too different to be shared in current surroundings. Yet the individualism of all their behaviors seems undeniably American in contrast to family-oriented Confucian values, or the greater-whole social principles of Chinese Communism. Throughout the book lingers the question of one's future: fate, destiny, free will. If we really knew and understood our past, would we make the same decisions? How much of our lives can we change; are they destined, free will, or luck? (Pei Chen)
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Hardcover Apr 2024. 368 pages
Published by Clarion Books
Makiia Lucier, who is from Guam and now lives in Portland, Oregon, is the accomplished author of several young adult books, with the latest being this story following a teenager on the island of Tamarind, home to a matriarchal culture, who embarks on a dangerous quest to find a rare dragonfruit in order to rectify a lingering problem from her past. Publishers Weekly writes, “Richly textured worldbuilding dazzles from start to finish, taking inspiration from Pacific Island mythology and riffing on well-loved elements from the YA fantasy canon.”
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Hardcover Mar 2024. 384 pages
Published by Roaring Brook Press
The worldbuilding of The Last Bloodcarver is vivid and potent, with picturesque, evocative descriptions contrasting the wealthy milieu of Theumas' elite with the gritty, often gruesome world of its underclass. Nhika is a sympathetic and engaging heroine, tough and resourceful owing to her circumstances, and also intensely lonely and vulnerable, believing that there is no one else like her left alive, and carrying with her the grief and guilt of being unable to cure her dying mother despite her magical abilities. The supporting characters are also well-drawn, nuanced, at times mysterious, and convincingly unpredictable as we see them through Nhika's eyes. (Jo-Anne Blanco)
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Paperback Mar 2024. 112 pages
Published by Ecco
The poignant, accessible poems in Palestinian American author Hala Alyan's fifth collection, The Moon that Turns You Back, emerge from a family history of Arab diaspora. Simultaneously tied to and cast out from the nations of the war-torn Middle East, generations of her family have been exiles. The poet describes her father as "unreturnable / one passport short of country / one country short of citizen." Readers new to poetry need not be wary; the book is led by its themes and features recognizable characters and events. A family memoir can be pieced together along the way, but the emotional territory is universal: health struggles, bereavement, homesickness, and coping with the tragic and unexpected. (Rebecca Foster)
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Hardcover Jan 2024. 352 pages
Published by Knopf
In Kaveh Akbar's debut novel Martyr!, Cyrus Shams is an aimless twenty-nine-year-old poet living in an Indiana college town. An Iranian poet who is obsessed with death is, Cyrus knows, and others remind him, a cliché, but he can't help it: he has an artist's urge to create something from his preoccupations and political passions. He embarks on a writing project about martyrs, people who made their deaths mean something. Akbar's writing is more playful and stylish when he's not in Cyrus's head. Akbar also includes dreamy, imagined conversations between his characters and historical or fictional ones, like a few pages in which Roya talks to Lisa Simpson or Ali talks to Rumi. And, finally, Cyrus's poems, excerpted from his work in progress "BOOKOFMARTYRS.docx," are really good, brilliant and subtle. (Chloe Pfeiffer)
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Paperback Jan 2024. 368 pages
Published by Ballantine Books
Parini Shroff's The Bandit Queens is a darkly comedic tale about female friendship and women's empowerment that upholds respectful discourse about violence against women in India and the systems that perpetuate that brutality. Shroff's novel is a delicate tightrope act, always balancing on the line between comedy and tragedy. It quickly won my heart in engaging with sexism and casteism gracefully. Seamless dialogue reads as if it's from a binge-worthy Netflix series and descriptions perfectly encompass the author's balanced approach. Her acerbic wit and cheekiness surprised me throughout the novel, and I often felt like the third–person narrative was both its own character and a friend of mine. (Lisa Ahima)
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Paperback Jan 2024. 304 pages
Published by Berkley Books
Amy navigates tension with her mother, who is strict and hard-working, always focused on maintaining their restaurant. Lonnie, meanwhile, suffers traumatic childhood memories of witnessing her mother's death and the institution she was sent to live in afterward. As Cara seeks to uncover the truth behind the beached body parts, she is wrestling with grief over the sudden loss of her husband and son on a camping trip, and her quest for answers drives her work. She thinks their deaths might be connected to the case in Point Mettier, but she must overcome her clouded judgment to prevent personal motivations from distracting her. She also must try to not be sidetracked by her growing feelings for local police officer J.B., who is aiding in the investigation. City Under One Roof is filled from cover to cover with compelling stories from engaging characters. (Glory Cumbow)
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Paperback Jan 2024. 320 pages
Published by Back Bay Books
In "My Mother and the Starving Octopus," Imbler explores the pitfalls of motherhood and womanhood through the lens of an octopus that brooded over her eggs for an astonishing four-and-a-half years, not leaving them even for a moment to seek nourishment. An essay called "We Swarm" is an ode to queer locations and events in New York City, including the annual Pride parade and accompanying Dyke March ("which any of us will remind you is a protest, not a parade"), as well as a stretch of Jacob Riis Beach in Queens that is a popular party spot and hallowed part of LGBTQ+ history. In one of the strongest pieces, "Hybrids," Imbler addresses the theme of community again, interrogating language to consider how white supremacy invades and infects self-expression for people of color. They conclude astutely that "Maybe complaining to someone who gets it is one of the purest comforts on Earth." (Lisa Butts)
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Paperback Dec 2023. 384 pages
Published by Spiegel & Grau
Skull Water begins with teenage Insu in 1974. He is returning to his mother's homeland of Korea due to his German-American military father's redeployment, after living abroad for much of his childhood. Insu soon meets his mother's brother, Big Uncle, with whom he finds a spiritual connection that prompts his transformation into a man. Insu comes to realize that simple black-and-white ways of viewing the world — Heaven and Earth, bad and good people, right and wrong acts — can all be inverted, especially when the violent transgressions of war have turned the world upside down. Many novels that explore war are unflinchingly brutal and difficult to read, and Skull Water is no exception when Fenkl writes from Big Uncle's perspective. Yet the novel also explores echoes from the war through previous connections, and memories shared or withheld between families and friends. Skull Water is a particularly complex "war novel" in that it shows not just the events of the Korean War, but also its impact upon a subsequent generation, including racial and cultural collisions. (Jennifer Hon Khalaf)
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Paperback Nov 2023. 320 pages
Published by Quill Tree Books
Corazon — Cory — Tagubio is a Filipina-American teenager living with her family in California. She knows she could be a better daughter and a better student at her Catholic high school. But these ordinary concerns are set aside when a new AP World History substitute teacher, Ms. Holden, enters her life, tanned and glowing from surfing, full of stories about European history, attractive to Cory in a way she hasn't felt before. Around the same time, Cory's father has a work-related accident that puts him in a coma, and the doctors are not hopeful. The relationship between Cory and Ms. Holden deepens, and Cory's mother catches them kissing. Before Cory knows it she is on her way to Manila in the Philippines to live with Jun, the older half brother she has never met in person, the child of her father's first marriage. In Manila, Cory meets her mother's entitled family and the domestic workers who serve them, her much less wealthy father's fallen-from-grace brother, and most importantly, Jun and his friends. Each of these characters widens Cory's perspective on what is important in life, and what real love looks like. The novel is full of rich fragments of life in Manila, from Jollibee restaurant chain takeout to brief conversations in Tagalog. (Catherine M Andronik)
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Hardcover Oct 2023. Paperback Oct 15, 2024. 304 pages
Published by Simon & Schuster
Lydia Weston is among the first wave of female physicians and professors in the United States. Dedicated to her work, she spends her days treating the sick and teaching the next generation of young doctors at Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania. Her routine is thrown into chaos, however, when the body of her patient and would-be friend, Anna Ward, is pulled from the river. Two major threads run parallel through the entirety of Murder by Degrees: Lydia's day-to-day experiences as a woman doctor, as she is forced to continuously demonstrate her worth regardless of her clear qualifications and skill; and the mystery surrounding Anna's death. It would be easy for one to steal focus and the other to feel like an afterthought, but author Ritu Mukerji pays equal attention to each. As a result, both are developed and intriguing enough to stand on their own, but woven together, they form an even more captivating narrative that paints a vivid picture of reality for women in the 1800s. (Callum McLaughlin)
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