My Other Heart

(Paperback)

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The unmissable debut novel 'Beautifully written and accomplished' NUSSAIBAH YOUNIS, author of Fundamentally 'Authentic and full of life' JESSICA STANLEY, author of Consider Yourself Kissed 'Gorgeous, devastating, equally joyous and heartbreaking' JINWOO CHONG, author of Flux May 1998- Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan wait restlessly at the gates of Philadelphia airport. There is still a day's travelling left before they would land back home on Vietnamese soil. While they prepare to board, the unimaginable happens. Seventeen years later, two best friends are discussing their summer plans before college over a piece of mooncake. Both have trips ahead in search of their roots- Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother's family. Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese. Their parents watch on from the quiet suburbs of Chestnut Hill, nervous of what their daughters might find. Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Each of these women are looking to find their place in the world. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties. READER REVIEWS 'An unflinching exploration of Asian-American identity, discrimination, adoption, and classism.' 'An emotional whirlwind ... A magnificent coming-of-age novel' 'At times heartbreaking and other times joyfully life-affirming ... This is a novel that spans decades and continents, yet remains deeply intimate and moving' 'The type of book you can't put down' 'A rights of passage tale with a twist'

Reviews

My heart was captured by this gorgeous book. My Other Heart is one of those novels that gets its hooks into you and doesn't let go. A beautifully told story of family, identity, loss and belonging -- Jennie Godfrey
Beautifully written and accomplished -- Nussaibah Younis, author of 'Fundamentally'
Two complex, shimmering young women burst from the pages of My Other Heart, authentic and full of life. I fell in love with Kit and Sabrina, their flawed but caring mothers, and Emma Nanami Strenner's beautiful words -- Jessica Stanley, author of 'Consider Yourself Kissed'
I've never read anything quite like Emma Nanami Strenner's My Other Heart: gorgeous, devastating, equally joyous and heartbreaking. Weaving three disparate lives across years and thousands of miles, it recounts the ripple effect expanding from a single, fateful day in the past, spinning an ecosystem of pain and memory around it. Reaching the end of Sabrina, Kit, and Mimi's story was like taking in a gasp of air after spending a minute underwater. -- Jinwoo Chong, author of 'Flux'
A story that probes questions of identity, how we all have an idea of who we are. But it excels as a portrait of young women finding their way in the world ... A terrific, nuanced portrayal of female friendship and first loves - it really threw me back to the agony and the ecstasy. Clever, poignant and gripping, what a combination -- Natasha Poliszczuk
My Other Heart is a wise, well observed, and transporting debut that explores what it means to belong. At once an immersive coming of age novel and an unflinching study of race, class, and manners, it confronts loneliness, cowardice, the quest for self-acceptance, and the effort required to truly see one another - even the people we think we're closest to - head-on. Sabrina Chen is an unforgettable heroine. I was on her side from start to finish. -- Emma Knight, New York Times bestselling author of 'The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus'

Author Bio

Emma Nanami Strenner has been a journalist for over twenty years. She has written for VOGUE International, ELLE, Stylist Magazine, Conde Nast Traveller and The Times. Emma is British Japanese and studied at the University of Leeds. She completed the Curtis Brown Creative Six-Month Novel Writing Course and is also a Faber Academy Alumni. She has spent much of her life living abroad in Japan, Vietnam, Australia, China, Singapore and the US. She currently lives in London. My Other Heart is her first novel.