My Other Heart - by Emma Nanami Strenner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A missing child, two girls in search of their true identities--a stunning novel of mothers, daughters and best friends

In June 1998, Mimi Truang is on her way home to Vietnam when her toddler daughter vanishes in the Philadelphia airport.

Seventeen years later, two best friends in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, discuss their summer plans before college. Kit, with the support of her white adoptive parents, will travel to Tokyo to explore her Japanese roots. This dizzying adventure offers her a taste of first love and a new understanding of what it means to belong.

Sabrina had hoped to take a similar trip to China, but money is tight. Her disappointment subsides, however, when she meets a bold, uncompromising new mentor who prompts Sabrina to ask questions she's avoided all her life. Meanwhile, Mimi purchases a plane ticket to Philadelphia. She finally has a lead in her search for her daughter.

When Mimi, Kit, and Sabrina come face to face, they will confront the people they truly are, in this tremendously moving novel that is propelled to its astonishing climax in a way you will never forget.

Review Quotes

Praise for My Other Heart

"A mesmerizing novel filled with different types of love and secrets from the past, My Other Heart is an exploration of identity, motherhood, and friendship. Emma Nanami Strenner's luminous debut follows three unforgettable women as they search for truth and belonging. Poignant and powerful, this is a novel that lingers long after the final page."
--Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee

"[My Other Heart] captures the intense love between mothers and daughters and highlights the resilience of young women forging their own identities in a world full of expectations. A beautifully written and thought-provoking novel that is a must-read for those interested in contemporary fiction about cultural exploration and personal growth."
--Library Journal

"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

"I'm grateful to Emma Nanami Strenner for this story of two young Asian-American women, who grapple with big questions of culture and social class, while also navigating the everyday complexities of friendship, love, and daughterhood. My Other Heart offers no pat or easy answers, thank goodness. Instead, Sabrina and Kit learn that identity isn't always simple and that only they can answer the question of who they are and to what world--or worlds--they want to belong."
--Marisa de los Santos, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Us Shine

"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

"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."
--Jess Stanley, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

"I am bereft to have finished it! From the suburbs of Philadelphia to the streets of Saigon, I was completely immersed in the lives of these very special characters. I loved it."
--Emily Itami, author of Fault Lines

"Beautifully written and accomplished."
--Nussaibah Younis, author of Fundamentally

About the Author

Emma Nanami Strenner is British Japanese and has a degree in Modern Chinese Studies from the University of Leeds. She has worked as a journalist for almost twenty years and as a section editor for Vogue International, Elle, and Stylist. She spent most of her life living abroad in Japan, Vietnam, Australia, China, Singapore, and the United States. This is her debut novel.