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.
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Write to Annabel Gutterman at annabel.gutterman@time.com