Remarkable Books by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Authors

From the award-winning author of Flux comes “an endearing novel about second chances” (The Washington Post), with wise insights into love, family, and the art of sushi.

This tender, elegant debut examines the struggle of holding a family together when secrets threaten to unravel it. From the mangrove forests of Thailand to a modest stucco house in Los Angeles to the sandstone quadrangles of Stanford, The Outer Country is at once epic and intimate in scope, a breathtaking journey across cultures and generations.

When the star players on a high school football team are accused of violence by another student, their secrets — and the secrets of their parents — threaten to shatter their entire community in a gripping novel of race, class, and privilege from the author of Members Only.

”Thank you for your interest in our school, but we regret to inform you that…” you’re not special. You’re too average. You’re too boring … Well, in that case, she’ll have to show them just how interesting she can be … Layered and subversive, this novel brings to light how, in the face of societal expectations and self-inflicted pressures, a person can unlock the darkest parts of themselves and show how far they’re willing to go to achieve their vision of success.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Real Americans, a brilliant short story collection about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it’s so easy to be someone else. Ranging from the sinister to the tender, these witty and expertly paced stories will have you laughing out loud one minute and reaching for your best friend the next.

Threaded with sharp social commentary, these stories question the engineering of human connection through technology, social media, and reality television. Warm, endlessly strange, and filled with dark yet hopeful humor, I Am the Ghost Here casts familiar crises of contemporary life in a wholly unique light, offering a pathway towards our shared humanity even as reality comes crumbling down.

Caught between a relentless tech job, her adoring fiancé, and an unexpected new flame, Mei must learn what it means to choose herself.

“An uplifting tale of friendship, kindness, and connection … This joyful story of the unlikely friendship between five strangers and one remarkable cat is a must-read for cat lovers” (Marianne Cronin, author of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot).

A nearly divorced trophy wife enrolls in culinary school to win back her husband, only to find a fresh start in the unlikeliest of places in this new novel from the USA Today bestselling author of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers.

A brilliant, sweeping tour de force moving between the U.S. and modern India, following the illicit liaisons, real estate dramas, political ambitions, and mortal betrayals of one prominent Delhi family — from the author of the National Book Award finalist The Association of Small Bombs.

“A wildly good time … a swoony, funny, romantic novel” (Rebecca Serle, New York Times bestselling author of In Five Years) about a woman thrown a curveball by fate, and the family secret that will make her question everything. As she battles between fate and chance, head and heart, she will have to decide if she’ll follow her fate … or make her own.

A sweeping novel about a correspondent trapped behind enemy lines during the Korean War, and the women who help her find her way home, from the national bestselling author of Daughters of Shandong. Moving and triumphant, The Young Will Remember sheds light on a “Forgotten War,” the resilience of love within our darkest histories, and the indefatigable determination of mothers to protect their children.

When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera.

A humbled prince, a grumpy grandmaster, and a ragtag band of heroes find out what it takes to become truly legendary, in the conclusion to the epic fantasy trilogy lauded as “dramatic, fun, thoughtful, clever, and (literally) punchy” (Kirkus Reviews).

A provocative, fast-paced novel about two creative women — a young writer fighting to be heard and an older producer clinging to relevancy — and the age reversal treatment that intertwines both of their lives … from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the beloved Front Desk series. Sharp, timely, and utterly compelling, The Take is perfect for readers of Yellowface and Such a Fun Age — a searing portrait of two women fighting to rewrite their story.

Ocean Vuong returns with a bighearted novel about chosen family, unexpected friendship, and the stories we tell ourselves in order to survive. Hallmarks of Vuong’s writing — formal innovation, syntactic dexterity, and the ability to twin grit with grace through tenderness — are on full display in this story of loss, hope, and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: A second chance.

What if you could enter the mind of the person you love the most? Blisteringly smart, thought-provoking, and shocking, Immaculate Conception offers us a portrait of close friendship — achingly tender and twisted — that captures the tenuous line between love and possession that will haunt you long after you turn the final page.

A bold and inventive novel about real romance in the virtual workplace — bringing Castillo’s trademark wit and sharp cultural criticism to an irresistible story about the possible future of love.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wife comes a suspenseful story about a vacation in the Hamptons that goes terribly wrong for three friends with a complicated history.

A witty and thought-provoking mystery that reimagines the spy story to explore the nature of relationships in a digital age: The follow-up to Jane Pek’s “thoroughly modern twist on classic detective fiction,” The Verifiers (New York Times Book Review).

From the #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere, comes the inspiring new novel about a mother’s unshakeable love. Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children and the power of art to create change.

In this dazzling debut, Stegner Fellow Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

An utterly transporting debut novel about the unexpected relationship between an artist and the 130-year-old woman she cares for — two of the last people living in a flooded San Francisco of the future, the home neither is ready to leave.

The paths of four family members diverge drastically when the U.S. government begins detaining Vietnamese Americans, in this “rich, gripping novel that lands squarely as a mirror of our contemporary moral squalor” (Los Angeles Times). Moving and finely attuned to both the brutalities and mundanities of racism, My Documents is a strangely funny and touching portrait of American ambition, fear, and family.

A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the maze-like home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines.

From the author of Gold Diggers, a biting examination of millennial adulthood, the often fraught conversations around fertility and reproduction, and the painful quest to forge an identity.

House of Many Gods is an epic and inventive story that follows Ana, a Hawaiian physician, and Nikolai, a Russian filmmaker, across decades and continents. When Nikolai comes to Kaua’i to unearth the ecological horrors that are afflicting the islands, he meets Ana and suddenly their lives become intertwined in a way neither thought possible. It is an unforgettable novel of loss and remembrance, of the search for family and identity, and ultimately, of the redemptive power of love.

A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

From the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Interpreter of Maladies: These eight stories take us from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, as they explore the secrets at the heart of family life.

Iranian-American multimillionaires Ali and Homa Milani have it all — a McMansion in the hills of LA, a microwaveable snack empire, and four spirited daughters. On the verge of landing their own reality TV show, the Milanis realize their deepest secrets are about to be dragged out into the open before the cameras even roll. Each of the Milanis — even their aloof Persian cat Pari — has something to hide, but the looming scrutiny of fame also threatens to bring the family closer than ever. Dramatic, biting yet full of heart, Tehrangeles is a tragicomic saga about high-functioning family dysfunction and the ever-present struggle to accept one’s true self.

In this exhilarating novel, two friends — often in love, but never lovers — come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality. Spanning thirty years, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: To be loved and to love.

In a stunning collection that announces the arrival of an incredible talent, Kristiana Kahakauwila travels the islands of Hawai’i, making the fabled place her own. Exploring the deep tensions between local and tourist, tradition and expectation, façade and authentic self, This Is Paradise provides an unforgettable portrait of life as it’s truly being lived on Maui, Oahu, Kaua’i, and the Big Island.

When a young woman is found dead on her college campus, her sister doesn’t believe it was an accident — and her search for answers leads her closer to home than she ever would have imagined in this thrilling debut novel from an exciting new talent.

The award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a meaningful life? Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.

Full of Ozeki’s signature humor and deeply engaged with the relationship between writer and reader, past and present, fact and fiction, quantum physics, history, and myth, A Tale for the Time Being is a brilliantly inventive, beguiling story of our shared humanity and the search for home.