“Sweeping and epic…An impactful love story, told against the backdrop of historical events…One of the best debut novels of this century.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Like any tried-and-true epic (think “Pachinko” or “The Joy Luck Club”… Homeseeking is just a genuine pleasure to read.”—San Francisco Chronicle
A single choice can define an entire life.
Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.
Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.
Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen’s story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi’s from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.
At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time.
* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains notes from the book.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 7, 2025 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593944066
- File size: 495847 KB
- Duration: 17:12:59
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Publisher's Weekly
October 28, 2024
In this sweeping and heart-rending debut, Chen brings to life more than 60 years of Chinese history through the tale of childhood sweethearts separated by war and reunited decades later in America. Haiwen, a recent widower, and Suchi, who helps raise her grandkids, cross paths while shopping in 2008 Los Angeles. The two first met as kindergartners in 1930s Shanghai and fell in love as teenagers but were separated by the war between Mao’s Communists and Chiang Kai Shek’s Nationalists. In the historical timeline, Haiwen enlists in the Nationalist army in a misguided effort to help his family, a decision that will tragically reverberate through succeeding generations. Suchi, meanwhile, is sent to Hong Kong with her older sister to escape the war. At times, Chen relies too much on expositional dialogue to capture historical nuances, such as mainlander suppression of native Taiwanese culture, but in tracing Haiwen’s and Suchi’s diverging paths, she conveys the breadth of their sacrifices, making their eventual reunion all the more poignant. As she writes about Suchi’s realizations: “Home wasn’t a place.... It was people who shared the same ghosts as you, of folks long gone, of places long disappeared.” For the most part, Chen scales the heights of her ambition. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary Management. -
AudioFile Magazine
Narrators Katharine Chin and Kenneth Lee captivate with this 60-year saga. Childhood sweethearts Haiwen and Suchi grow up in the same Shanghai neighborhood before being torn apart by war and time. Suchi's perspective, narrated by Chin, moves forward in time, while Haiwen's, narrated by Lee, moves backward. Chin's voice is warm and emotive, capturing Suchi's personality as she matures. Lee's slightly melodic intonation transitions smoothly between Haiwen and other characters, adding emphasis and variations of Chinese accents. Chin and Lee flawlessly pronounce words in regional dialects, adding to the story's rich texture. As Haiwen and Suchi's stories diverge and intersect at various points in their lives, Chin and Lee's remarkable narration shines. C.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine
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