Tracing decades of a friendship between three Asian American women—Giselle, Jackie, and Ellen—Lisa Ko’s follow-up to her best-selling 2017 novel The Leavers is an intricate portrait of creativity and ambition. Memory Piece begins in the early 1980s as the trio comes together at a barbecue. They share experiences of alienation and dream, together, of leading different lives than the ones they are surrounded by in suburban New Jersey. But as the years pass, those dreams warp, and so do their relationships to each other. Ko weaves a dizzying narrative about girlhood, artistry, and what it takes to stay connected, in spite of unpredictable challenges.
Buy Now: Memory Piece on Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Inside Elon Musk’s War on Washington
- Why Do More Young Adults Have Cancer?
- Colman Domingo Leads With Radical Love
- 11 New Books to Read in February
- How to Get Better at Doing Things Alone
- Cecily Strong on Goober the Clown
- Column: The Rise of America’s Broligarchy
- Introducing the 2025 Closers
Write to Annabel Gutterman at [email protected]