A stunning debut memoir about love, loss, and the Vietnamese immigrant experience in the American South.

In 1997, Thao Hà’s first love took the rap for a drive-by shooting and was sentenced to sixty years in the infamous Beto Unit, the most violent maximum-security prison in Texas. His name was Vu, and like Thao, he was a Vietnamese refugee in Houston’s Little Saigon neighborhood. Though steeped in Viet Pride, neither of them remembered the country they’d been evacuated from as infants. What they did know were the Vietnamese street gangs that ran wild in Houston. By her early twenties Thao had been arrested for theft, had transported a fugitive across county lines, and had been shot as a bystander in a pool-hall fracas turned violent.

After Vu’s sentence and her near-death experience, Thao parted ways with both Vu and gang life. She got serious about school and majored in sociology under the mentorship of an inspiring professor. She earned a PhD and secured a tenured professorship at Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California.

But as William Faulkner famously said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

The decades of her professional success brought marriages, divorces, failed relationships, and family trauma. But like an inextinguishable flame in the distance, the memory of Vu always beckoned to her. As she worked with a program that helped formerly incarcerated people gain access to education, she wrestled with whether to reconnect with him. After finding a box of old letters from Vu during a move, she took the plunge and wrote to him. The letters progressed to phone calls and prison visits, and Thao recognized that she was still in love with him.

But three years after they reconnected, their rekindled love story was cut tragically short.

Offering a counter narrative to the typical immigrant’s story, Thao Hà deftly uses her sociology background to explore refugee trauma and prison injustice, demonstrating the impact of unconditional love when navigating the dehumanizing system of mass incarceration. In this stunning debut, she shares her story of reckless youth, love reclaimed and tragically lost, and the power of words to transcend boundaries with unflinching honesty, insight, and conviction.

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A wickedly funny office comedy about one bookseller’s (occasionally) ludicrous attempts to understand her manager while against all odds clinging to her passion for books—the perfect read for anyone who has felt that they can’t even… with the idiots among us.

Kyoko Tanihara loves books. Just about. But life at the Musashino Bookshop is starting to get her down. Instead of promoting her favorite stories, she finds herself distracted, tearing her hair out at the mere sight of her infuriating manager Takeru Yamamoto who can’t seem to do anything but get in her way of success.

From Yamamoto’s useless obsession with self-helps books to his cringey remarks on the hottest author in town, everything about Yamamoto seems designed to set Kyoko off. All that amid her struggle to make a name for herself in the publishing world, it’s tough for her to keep her love of literature pure and alive.

Until one day she is handed a book that speaks to all her frustrations, and opens her eyes to a whole new reality. What if there’s actually more to her manager’s obnoxious antics? What if, just maybe, her manager isn’t so stupid after all?

Story Locale: Japan

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Doppelgangers, corporate intrigue, heartbreak, betrayal, and the harsh permanence of the border: Sublimation is a thrilling and provocative debut for fans of Severance that asks what you’d sacrifice for a different life from award-winning author Isabel J. Kim.

The border cuts you in two.

When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.

Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.

She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.

How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?

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From the New York Times-bestselling author of A Crane Among Wolves comes a warm and romantic homage to Jane Austen set in historical Korea, about a reader and a writer who secretly fight against government book banning and find themselves irresistibly drawn together.

As the dutiful second-eldest daughter of a poor family, society would have Haewon believe that her only hope of a decent life is to marry well. But during a time of rampant government censorship and book banning, she instead works as an illegal book transcriber in order to make a little extra money. It’s dangerous work, but she loves it—especially when she gets to transcribe the work of her favorite author, known as Black Lotus.

When her older sister becomes smitten with a wealthy young gentleman, Haewon is roped into chaperoning them during their courtship. Which wouldn’t be so terrible… if it weren’t for the young man’s uptight and annoying best friend who also accompanies them.

As the only son of a noble, Seojun has a lot expected of him. Wealth. Status. Respectability. Certainly not frivolous and often illicit activities such as reading fiction. But Seojun loves to do something even more scandalous: writing. He’s kept his work secret from his father and friends, but with each passing day, the pressure of being his father’s son and the dispiriting actions of the government make Seojun question the purpose of it all. The only thing keeping him going are the encouraging letters he receives from his transcriber, known only as Magpie.

When his best friend falls hard for a girl of lower social status, Seojun finds himself forced to act as chaperone to the infatuated couple—along with the girl’s younger sister, who is as irritating as she is judgmental. But as Haewon and Seojun spend more time together, they begin to suspect they may have judged each other too quickly…

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Two generations of a Muslim Indian family grapple with what parts of life we control and what we must humbly accept in pursuit of the American dream.

In suburban Miami, sixty-year-old Sakeena—co-owner of a Dunkin’ franchise along with her husband, Ramzan—has nine months to live unless she consents to an organ transplant. Thirty years ago, at Ramzan’s behest, she left her beloved Rawalpindi, India, for the United States. In the years that followed, she compromised her belief in naseeb, the Muslim notion of destiny, and acquiesced to fertility treatments. This time, she is adamant that she should live as intended—without medical intervention. As her health deteriorates, Ramzan desperately seeks to reunite their grown children with the hope of convincing Sakeena to extend her life.

But there are complications. Eldest daughter Fareen is consumed by an important business deal that, if successful, will land her a highly desired (and lucrative) promotion. Meanwhile, youngest son Adnan is living abroad and unable to return to the States due to his own unscrupulous business practices, a pattern stretching back to his adolescence. If they have any hope of saving their mother’s life, the siblings must take extraordinary action to wrestle with their life choices, actions that reveal the always-present tension between ambition and fate.

Brought to life by prose that captures the spirit of contemporary Miami as effortlessly as it conveys the challenges of running a Dunkin’ franchise, Abundance is a beautiful, moving read from an exciting new American voice.

Story Locale: Miami, FL; India

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A breathtaking debut novel about survival, hope, and second chances in an Asian American community in Massachusetts, when a false missile alert throws the residents’ lives into chaos.

On an otherwise unremarkable morning, the residents of a small town in Massachusetts all receive the same alert: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Confronted with the options of fight or flight, planning or panicking, the people of Beckitt are stripped to their basest instincts and revealed as their truest selves. Russ squeezes his family into the bathtub, leaving his own survival in question; Nina sends an unforgivable text to her daughter; Milly confesses her unrequited love; and David hits the gas, speeding away from his wife and child.

Then the second message comes in: FALSE ALARM. PLEASE DISREGARD. ALL CLEAR. First comes relief, then comes the reckoning, as each person is forced to face the unforeseen aftermath of decisions they thought might be their last.

Vincent Yu’s searing debut follows this eclectic cast of characters over a period of many years, suggesting that the conflicts the missile exacerbated were simmering under the surface long before, and proving the ripple effects of the false alarm will be felt for years to come.

An urgent, fiercely heartfelt exploration of relationships in all forms, Seek Immediate Shelter explores the balance between love and loyalty, betrayal and forgiveness. What choices would you make if you thought your life were on the line? And if you survive, can you ever redeem yourself?

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The under-told legacy of indentured servitude runs through the blood of countless descendants in the diaspora. In this deeply felt collection of essays, Andrea Gunraj explores the impact of her family’s history on her sense of self.

Andrea Gunraj delves into the under-told legacy of indentured labour and its lasting impacts on descendants across diasporas, from the Caribbean and Latin America to Canada, the United States, and beyond. She captures the complexities of belonging and the challenges of navigating dichotomies. Through the concept of “go-betweenness,” Gunraj illustrates her path from the intersections of race, class, and identity to a broader understanding of colonial histories.

A gripping read that weaves memoir with history and cultural criticism, Go-Between Girl is both accessible and profound, intimate and political. Gunraj invites readers  to reconsider their narratives about work, love, and heritage. Her essays are a touching testament to the enduring quest for justice, offering a powerful contribution to contemporary conversations on race, feminism, and the unfinished legacies of colonialism.

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Jenny Han meets Silicon Valley in this drama-packed debut young adult novel about a Chinese American teen who navigates a high-stakes coding competition, sabotage, and first love when she’s invited to a summer hackathon at MIT.

Sixteen-year-old Charise “Char” Tang is desperate to ditch her dead-end small town. So when she’s invited to a highly selective hackathon at MIT, she seizes the opportunity to jet across the country, spend the summer building an app, and maybe even snag the top prize—a golden ticket to a new life.

When she arrives, she teams up with Khoi Astor, coding wunderkind and creator of last year’s biggest mobile game. Khoi, who has soft eyes and a gentle smile. Khoi, who can make anyone laugh. Khoi, who is easy to fall for…and already dating her camp roommate. If only Char could reprogram her heart to forget about him.

As the competition heats up, so do things between Char and her teammate. But sabotage lurks around every corner, and she soon discovers that the glitzy tech world has a dark, dangerous underbelly.

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In this contemporary romantic drama for young adults, the high-stakes gang politics of Breaking Bad meets the star-crossed romance of Romeo & Juliet.

To keep Rajan out of prison, Simran agrees to handle his former gang’s books—but when a gang war erupts, they must decide how much they’ll sacrifice for each other.

As long as Simran has known Rajan, her immigrant community has warned her away. She knows what they call him, especially since he got out of juvie: an addict. A gangster. A killer. But Simran can’t believe Rajan is beyond hope. She’s seen his thoughtfulness firsthand: He’s the only one who’s noticed the pressure she’s under to be perfect—and how close she is to breaking. So when Rajan’s old gang tries to force him back in, Simran makes a desperate bargain: She’ll become their bookkeeper to clear his debts and keep him out of prison. But Rajan won’t leave her side while she works, and their forbidden attraction is becoming harder to ignore. Worse, there’s a gang war brewing—and neither of them is likely to get through it unscathed . . . if they get through it at all.

This high-stakes forbidden romance is perfect for fans of star-crossed love and the rich themes and singing prose of Sabaa Tahir and Angie Thomas.

Story Locale: an Indo-Canadian immigrant community in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada

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In this contemporary YA novel, high school student Charlotte Goh is an aspiring Asian American fashion influencer desperately trying to lift her family out of hardship, only to find it may come at a cost higher than any Chanel bag.

Seventeen-year-old Charlotte Goh is juggling two very different personas: the dutiful Korean daughter, and the hustling NYC fashion influencer. Her best friend Steven scoffs at her ambition, but she secretly hopes that her posts will help financially support her struggling family. Then one night, after posting about a racist experience she had at an influencer event, Charlotte finds herself going viral and garnering the fame she’s always craved. And as much as she doesn’t want her newfound popularity to change her, she can’t help but be swept away by the exciting perks: chic new friends, the attention of one of Hollywood’s hottest heartthrobs, and a slew of companies clamoring to sponsor her.

But as she falls deeper into the influencer world, she finds that she may have to sacrifice more than she bargained for—including her unexpected new feelings for Steven. Will Charlotte be able to stay true to herself, or will she lose the things that are most important to her?

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