Homeseeking: A GMA Book Club Pick - by Karissa Chen (Paperback)

About the Book

"An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, illuminating the Chinese diaspora and exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland"--

Book Synopsis

A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - Named a BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR by Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Elle, and Electric Lit

"Exceptional." --Los Angeles Times
"Unforgettable."--The Washington Post
"Storytelling magic."--Oprah Daily

From WWII to 2008, this searing story follows one couple across sixty years as world events pull them together and apart, exploring what it means to find home far from your homeland.

Haiwen is buying bananas at a 99 Ranch Market in Los Angeles when he looks up and sees Suchi, his Suchi, for the first time in sixty years. To recently widowed Haiwen it feels like a second chance, but Suchi has only survived by refusing to look back.

Suchi was seven when she first met Haiwen in their Shanghai neighborhood, drawn by the sound of his violin. Their childhood friendship blossomed into soul-deep love, but when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, she was left with just his violin and a note: Forgive me.

Homeseeking follows the separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history as war, famine, and opportunity take them separately to the song halls of Hong Kong, the military encampments of Taiwan, the bustling streets of New York, and sunny California, telling Haiwen's story from the present to the past while tracing Suchi's from her childhood to the present, meeting in the crucible of their lives. Throughout, Haiwen holds his memories close while Suchi forces herself to look only forward, neither losing sight of the home they hold in their hearts.

At once epic and intimate, Homeseeking is a story of family, sacrifice, and loyalty, and of the power of love to endure beyond distance, beyond time.

Review Quotes

"Fans of historical fiction will want to pick up this exceptional novel immediately."
--Los Angeles Times

"Those waiting to read one of the best books of 2025 don't have to wait long. Homeseeking, by Karissa Chen, has arrived on the scene early ... One of the best debut novels of this century."
--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

"This book is starting 2025 with a buzz."
--Book Riot

"As I tearfully turned the last page of Homeseeking, I knew that it had earned a place on my top shelf. For Chen has finally put into words the lifelong grief I have carried as an immigrant -- grief for a childhood, a place, a home that no longer exists ... [Home] can also live on inside a book. Just as I did, many readers are bound to find their home within the pages of Chen's unforgettable debut."
--Washington Post

"[A] sweeping, ambitious novel about the meaning of home and the power of memory."
--People

"[An] ambitious debut ... This is a novel historical fiction mavens will adore, as its storytelling magic and emotional depth flow over a foundation of enlightening, critically important facts."
--Oprah Daily

"Debut novels don't get much more ambitious than this one."
--Seattle Times

"[A] poignant debut ... Through her characters' ranging sensibilities, Chen examines the psychological aftershocks of war ... history and fate, displacement and separation. These are grand topics, but through Suchi and Haiwen's quests for belonging amid insurmountable conflict, Homeseeking captures the enduring and unexpected ways these larger forces impact individual lives."
--New York Times Book Review

"Wonderfully cinematic, gorgeously orchestrated ... Like any tried-and-true epic ... the reason Homeseeking is ultimately so successful is because of Chen's talent for seamlessly blending her characters' deeply nuanced personal stories with far-reaching historical events to explore universal themes about the human condition: love and loss, sacrifice and regret, hope and renewal."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"This generational, inter-continental love story is a testament to the enduring power of finding your home."
--Harper's Bazaar

"Karissa Chen's debut novel weaves expertly between present and past, telling the story of childhood sweethearts who meet again late in life and are torn between looking back and moving on. A kaleidoscopic yet intimate view of the Chinese diaspora, Homeseeking explores how identities flex and transform during war -- and which fundamental parts of us remain the same no matter where we find ourselves."
--Celeste Ng, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

"[A] sweeping epic ... Heartbreaking and hopeful in turns, Homeseeking is about the love of home and family, even against unimaginable circumstances."
--Good Housekeeping

"This epic novel is both the sweeping story of one country's fraught history and an intimate look at a couple's enduring bond."
--Real Simple

"Epic, assured, and beautifully drawn, Homeseeking is a love story that reveals the effects of war and history on the lives of individuals. Karissa Chen has created a world that's deeply absorbing, following Suchi and Haiwen across decades, borders, and lifetimes."
--Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

"A profound and ambitious work of historical fiction...Chen constructs a moving saga of Chinese history through the love and pain of two powerfully rendered protagonists."
--Elle
"The epic sweep of Karissa Chen's debut, Homeseeking, spans borders, oceans, decades, and wars to unfurl the tale of childhood sweethearts whose fates are bound together from their time as neighbors in Japan-occupied Shanghai. Vivid historical detail brings alive the settings, from 1960s Hong Kong to late-2000s Los Angeles--where the characters reconnect. Panoramic in scope, the novel illustrates how lives among the Chinese diaspora are buffeted by history and geopolitics."
--Vogue

"Homeseeking is intimate in its focus on a single couple but sweeping in its universal truths about how lives are forever changed by war."
--Reader's Digest

"Homeseeking is a layered, beautifully written, and deeply moving novel. The novel captures the resilience of the human spirit and the bittersweet reality of the immigrant experience. It's more than just a love story; it's a profound reflection on the impact of history, migration, and identity - one that explores the tension between holding on to the past and embracing the future, revealing both the pain and grace of finding where we truly belong."
--Abi Daré, New York Times bestselling author of Girl With the Louding Voice

"Homeseeking is Chen's debut, and it's a powerful one at that ... It's a tale of chance connection and sacrifice, crossing the Chinese diaspora through war, famine and displacement."
--USA Today

"A heartwarming and devastating page-turner about family, immigration and loyalty."
--Dallas Observer

"An absolute stunner of a debut. Chen nimbly tackles too often overlooked history in an exploration of surviving the trauma of war and loss of home. Homeseeking is a novel that asks if those who survive by moving forward and those who sustain by looking back can ever truly meet. At its heart, this is an impressive work of language, place, history, and all the tenuous ties that define who we are. Karissa Chen has created an elegant saga of soul and history, and proven herself a writer to watch."
--Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation

"Sweeping, epic, yet deeply intimate, Homeseeking traces a pair of first loves and the gossamer thread that binds them across six decades and four nations as the world splits them apart, again and again. A spellbinding meditation on family, immigration, and the many faces of courage in times of hardship, this is a dazzling debut." --Kirstin Chen, New York Times bestselling author of Counterfeit

"For admirers of epic historical narratives that sweep readers into another era, Homeseeking is a layered, fresh take on writing across decades. Bringing together themes of friendship, love, separation, and second chances, Karissa Chen has crafted a detailed debut that poignantly meditates on remembrance and moving forward."
--Electric Lit

About the Author

Karissa Chen is a Fulbright fellow, Kundiman Fiction fellow, and a VONA/Voices fellow whose fiction and essays have appeared in The Atlantic, Eater, The Cut, NBC News THINK!, Longreads, PEN America, Catapult, Gulf Coast, and Guernica, among others. She was awarded an artist fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as multiple writing residencies including at Millay Arts, where she was a Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation Creative Fellow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, among others. She was formerly a senior fiction editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the editor-in-chief at Hyphen magazine. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan.