TRACING INVISIBLE CURRENTS: MULTIGENERATIONAL STORIES – FICTION
Susan Choi’s Flashlight: A Novel traces the disappearance of Louisa’s father across time, nations, and memory, after a tragic summer night on the breakwater. Spanning decades and through shifting perspectives, Louisa and her mother navigate grief, estrangement, and family secrets – and the invisible currents that shape our lives. In Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel, two young people first glimpse each other on an overnight train, bound by their grandparents’ failed matchmaking. Sonia, an aspiring novelist returning to India, feels haunted by a dark spell from her past, while Sunny, a struggling journalist in New York, flees family violence. Together they search for happiness across countries, classes, and generations. Gish Jen’s Bad Bad Girl: A Novel is a funny and moving autobiographical novel tracing a tumultuous mother-daughter relationship. Born to a wealthy family in Shanghai, Jen’s mother sails to America on the eve of revolution, only to repeat the harshness of her upbringing with her own daughter. Spanning continents and generations, Bad Bad Girl is a wise, courageous, and compassionate portrait of family.
Buy Flashlight: A Novel – Choi
Buy The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A Novel – Desai
Buy Bad Bad Girl: A Novel – Jen
