A Reading List of Suspenseful, Moving Novels with Hidden Depths
By Jean Kwok
My new novel, The Leftover Woman, is about a young woman named Jasmine who gives birth in China and is told shortly afterwards that her baby died. She grieves, yet finds out years later that her daughter had not died but had been placed for adoption by her husband to a wealthy American couple—another casualty of China’s controversial One-child Policy. When the book opens, Jasmine has followed her child to New York City to do whatever she must to be reunited with her daughter. The novel is told from both her point of view and that of the adoptive mother, Rebecca: a wealthy, successful publishing executive who is doing her best to balance her challenging career and her beloved Chinese daughter.
I recently recorded a podcast about this book and the interviewer said, “Wow, you’re doing so much: weaving a propulsive, romantic family drama that’s thrilling and mysterious, while layering themes of female ambition, fetishization, international adoption, immigration, class, race and more.” I laughed and said, “I do feel like I’m juggling a lot of balls but those are the types of books I love.”
Here are a few other novels that draw you into their breathtaking stories and contain many layers of meaning and emotion.
What We Kept to Ourselves by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
I couldn’t put down this gorgeous, thrilling novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club pick The Last Story of Mina Lee. The Kim family was already devastated when their mother vanished years ago, but now they find the body of a stranger in their backyard, carrying a letter addressed to their mom. Kim’s beautiful prose illuminates themes of immigration, love, and loss.
The Puzzle Master by Danielle Trussoni
Chosen for the CBS New York Book Club with Mary Calvi, this is such an addictive read that engages both your heart and your mind. Former Pulitzer judge Trussoni combines reality and the supernatural when Mike Brink, a brilliant puzzle constructor, tries to solve the mystery of Jess Price, a woman serving time in prison for murder who hasn’t spoken a word since her arrest five years prior. The reader follows along as the novel travels from nineteenth-century Prague to the secret rooms of the Pierpont Morgan Library to a women’s prison to try to solve an ancient mystery.
Hedge by Jane Delury
Part love story, part thriller, this novel kept me entranced until the very last page. Maud is a talented garden historian who escapes her troubled marriage by accepting a summer job restoring the garden of a lush, 19th-century estate in the Hudson Valley. There, she meets and grows intimate with co-worker and archeologist Gabriel. However, Maud’s daughters join her with unexpected consequences and Maud begins to wonder if Gabriel truly is the man she believed he was. A beautiful interrogation of what it means to be a woman, a mother, and an intellectual.
What Remains by Wendy Walker
This New York Times Editors’ Choice Selection is not only a heart-pounding page-turner but also an exploration of love, fidelity, and secrets. A cold case detective saves a man’s life but then finds herself targeted by him in a terrifying game of cat and mouse. Readers are riveted by both the masterful plot and empathy for Walker’s complex characters who test the fragility of the ties that tether them not only to those they love, but also to their own identities.
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen
I loved this Reese’s Book Club pick and New York Times Editors’ Choice Selection. Two Asian American women team up to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise. The seductive storyline twists and turns even as Chen deftly interrogates issues of race, identity, wealth, and consumerism. A delight for mind and heart.
Broadway Butterfly by Sara DiVello
Chosen for the CBS New York Book Club with Mary Calvi, DiVello’s true-crime novel is based on one of the most notorious unsolved murders of New York in the Roaring Twenties. A scandalous flapper is found dead in her Midtown apartment, and readers follow along the twists and turns as real-life figures attempt to solve the mystery. A propulsive, thrilling read that engages on a deeper level with themes of privilege, sexism, racism, and class.
Posted October 6, 2023
Jean Kwok is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation, and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and is taught in universities, colleges, and high schools across the world. She has been selected for numerous honors, including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award international shortlist. She received her bachelor's degree from Harvard University and earned an MFA from Columbia University. She is fluent in Chinese, Dutch, and English, and divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City.