Homeseeking by Karissa Chen

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About the Book

Homeseeking opens with a single, quietly devastating moment: Haiwen is buying bananas at a market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi — his Suchi — for the first time in sixty years. Recently widowed, Haiwen feels it as a second chance, while Suchi, who has only survived by refusing to look back, is far less certain.

The story reaches back to when Suchi was seven years old and first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn in by the sound of his violin. Their story unfolds against the backdrop of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Chinese Civil War, and the Communist takeover, tracing decades of upheaval that repeatedly separate the two childhood friends. In the late 1940s, Haiwen's father is arrested by the Nationalist government on suspicion of Communist ties, forcing the family to prove its loyalty to Chiang Kai-shek — a pressure that eventually pushes Haiwen to enlist and leave for Taiwan with other Nationalist soldiers, in a hurried departure that means he never gets the chance to tell Suchi he's leaving. Suchi, meanwhile, does not follow him to Taiwan; instead she goes to Hong Kong in 1948 to help her father with his bookstore, technically to meet with a publisher but really to be moved to safety in the British colony.

Told across twenty narrative sections with an overture and coda, the novel moves between 1940s Shanghai and early-21st-century Los Angeles, weaving personal loss together with the broader political upheaval of the Chinese diaspora. Chen has said the novel was partly inspired by her own grandfather's story — a man who left China just before the 1949 Communist victory and, having become one of the many exiled Nationalist soldiers in Taiwan, was unable to return to see his mother again before she passed away, more than fifty years later.

Please note: this novel contains scenes depicting sexual assault, and references to suicidal ideation and miscarriage.

Why Choose This Book?

• A sweeping, multi-decade love story: Follows Suchi and Haiwen across sixty years, from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
• Rich historical backdrop: Illuminates the Chinese Civil War, wartime Shanghai, and the broader Chinese diaspora experience.
• A celebrated debut: Praised as a profound and ambitious work of historical fiction that constructs a moving saga of Chinese history through two powerfully rendered protagonists.
• A GMA Book Club Pick: Recognized as one of the standout book club reads of its release year.
• Deeply personal roots: Inspired in part by the author's own family history and her grandfather's experience of exile.

About the Author: Karissa Chen

Karissa Chen's debut novel, Homeseeking, is a sweeping family saga set across eight decades, informed in part by her grandfather's story. She became interested in the story of Chinese exiles in Taiwan after her grandfather's death, inspired in part by a photograph found among his belongings of him crying before his mother's grave in Shanghai, a mother he had not seen since fleeing China just before the Communist victory in 1949.

Who Should Read This Book?

• Fans of sweeping, multigenerational historical fiction and epic love stories
• Readers who enjoyed The Joy Luck Club, Pachinko, or Daughters of Shandong
• Anyone interested in 20th-century Chinese history and the immigrant experience
• Readers drawn to stories about memory, displacement, and the meaning of home
• Book clubs looking for an emotionally rich, discussion-worthy read

Why Buy From Us?

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Order now and bring home Homeseeking — an unforgettable saga of love, war, and the enduring search for home.

Note: content sourced from reviews and publisher pages since the book wasn't in your upload. Worth double-checking the publisher (G.P. Putnam's Sons) and release date (January 2025) before publishing, and flagging the mature content note prominently given the sensitive themes involved.