Homeseeking: A GMA Book Club Pick

Written by Karissa Chen

Narrated by Katharine Chin and Kenneth Lee

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.

A single choice can define an entire life.

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.



* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF that contains notes from the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Release date: Jan 7, 2025
• ISBN: 9780593944059

Karissa Chen

Karissa Chen is a writer who splits her time between New Jersey and Taipei, Taiwan. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Atlantic, Bon Appetit, Eater, The Cut, NBC News, Catapult, Gulf Coast, PEN America, and Guernica, among others. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Taiwan in 2015-2016 and was awarded a 2019 artist fellowship from the NJ Council on the Arts. She was formerly the Senior Fiction Editor at The Rumpus and currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Hyphen magazine. She received her MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.

Reviews for Homeseeking

[pmtracy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Unlike anything I've ever read. It was deeply moving but frustrating because we don't know how it ends.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

fiction - a love story that shifts between Japanese-occupied/wartime (1938-1947) Shanghai and 2008 California.

very readable and enjoyable despite the changing pronunciation of names (didn't realize dialects could have that affect, and was sort of cool to learn). Loved the lyrical, delectable prose describing the scents and flavors of the neighborhood, and the complex histories of the two families.

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was unexpectedly disappointed in Homeseeking. I thought the recurrent themes of family, love and a longing to belong in a different country were well done. The reuniting of two young people in love after a separation of sixty years is significant; however, the alternating timelines between past and present left me confused at times. Many other reviewers gave it high marks, so I probably wasn't the right reader.

[fictionvictim · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I LOVED THIS. I wish it went on forever.

[shazjhb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book post WWII China and the takeover/fight between communists and Nationalist. Many things I did not know. I thought that China owned Taiwan and did not realize that the Nationalist ended up there. Complicated book, multiple layers, and interesting characters. For me the various timelines were a bit much.