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A towering achievement in storytelling . . . an impactful love story, told against the backdrop of historical events . . . one of the best debut novels of this century. * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * 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 Masterful and ambitious . . . mesmerising in its balance between global events and intimate suffering, and its portrayal of ruptured lives is heartrending -- Marie-Claire Chappet, 5 Debut Female Authors to Read in 2025 * Harper's Bazaar * Skilfully interweaves the personal and the political to produce a kaleidoscopic and affecting work -- Hannah Beckerman * Guardian * 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. -- Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation A love story in more ways than one, Homeseeking is a beautiful, nuanced look at Chinese history, family, young love, and the wisdom of age. As Suchi and Haiwen do their best to survive their lives, we follow them across the circumstances and choices that continually separate them, and bring them back together - even as their worlds keep changing. By the end I was in tears. Remarkable -- Vanessa Chan, author of <i>The Storm We Made</i> 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, author of <i>Our Missing Hearts</i> Homeseeking is a perfect love song, beautiful and poignant and tender and sad. A tour de force of storytelling and a book with real faith in the human heart, with all its immense capacity for both love and hatred. Read it. It will make time stand still. Karissa Chen is the writer we've been waiting for, and Homeseeking is a must read -- Matthew Salesses, author of <i>The Sense of Wonder</i> Through its glittering and heartrending depictions of war, forced movement, broken love stories, and the tumultuous Chinese-Taiwanese 20th century, this spellbinding debut ingeniously captures the paradox of the immigrant experience: doggedly looking forward while uncontrollably looking back. -- Juliet Grames, author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna 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 <i>The Leavers</i> In Homeseeking, Karissa Chen brings a rare delicacy to the pain of history, exploring what it means for generations to be simultaneously imprisoned by and separated from the past. Her characters linger with desperate vividness in each other's memories - as they long will in her readers' imaginations -- Elizabeth Kostova, author of <i>The Historian</i> Karissa Chen is a brilliant and patient storyteller, weaving the entwined histories of two unforgettable characters separated and reunited across time and distance in this tender, riveting novel. Chen's lush descriptions and rich historical details offer much for readers to see and hear and imagine as we follow Suchi and Haiwen from their Shanghai neighborhood to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Los Angeles. A sweeping, poignant work of history, memory, and survival, Homeseeking is an enduring love story and a debut to treasure -- Nicole Chung, author of <i>A Living Remedy</i> A tender and captivating story about fate and loss, hope and love, expertly intertwined with modern Chinese history. Uniquely told through two lovers whose perspectives begin at opposite ends of their timelines, Karissa Chen's beautiful debut will take your heart on a journey! -- Eve J. Chung, author of <i>Daughters of Shandong</i> Homeseeking is a layered, beautifully written, and deeply moving novel. Karissa Chen masterfully blends love, music, history, and heartbreak to create a sweeping tale that spans decades and continents. 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, author of <i>the Girl with the Louding Voice</i> Wonderfully cinematic, gorgeously orchestrated . . . like any tried-and-true epic (think Pachinko or The Joy Luck Club) . . . Homeseeking is just a genuine pleasure to read. * San Francisco Chronicle * [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 * While Karissa Chen's sweeping epic, Homeseeking, centers on war, love and family, more than anything it's about the immigrant's phantom limb - the longing for home and for the lives and loves left behind . . . The ambition and scope of Homeseeking are impressive enough before considering Chen's craft and execution. It is impossible not to marvel at the many strands she has woven into this beating heart of a novel . . . It is rare that a 500-page book delivers on its weight, and even rarer that a book I'm asked to review becomes an all-time favorite. But 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 exist . . . Just as I did, many readers are bound to find their home within the pages of Chen's unforgettable debut. * Washington Post *

A towering achievement in storytelling . . . an impactful love story, told against the backdrop of historical events . . . one of the best debut novels of this century. * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette * 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 Masterful and ambitious . . . mesmerising in its balance between global events and intimate suffering, and its portrayal of ruptured lives is heartrending -- Marie-Claire Chappet, 5 Debut Female Authors to Read in 2025 * Harper's Bazaar * Skilfully interweaves the personal and the political to produce a kaleidoscopic and affecting work -- Hannah Beckerman * Guardian * 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. -- Erika Swyler, author of The Book of Speculation A love story in more ways than one, Homeseeking is a beautiful, nuanced look at Chinese history, family, young love, and the wisdom of age. As Suchi and Haiwen do their best to survive their lives, we follow them across the circumstances and choices that continually separate them, and bring them back together - even as their worlds keep changing. By the end I was in tears. Remarkable -- Vanessa Chan, author of <i>The Storm We Made</i> 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, author of <i>Our Missing Hearts</i> Homeseeking is a perfect love song, beautiful and poignant and tender and sad. A tour de force of storytelling and a book with real faith in the human heart, with all its immense capacity for both love and hatred. Read it. It will make time stand still. Karissa Chen is the writer we've been waiting for, and Homeseeking is a must read -- Matthew Salesses, author of <i>The Sense of Wonder</i> Through its glittering and heartrending depictions of war, forced movement, broken love stories, and the tumultuous Chinese-Taiwanese 20th century, this spellbinding debut ingeniously captures the paradox of the immigrant experience: doggedly looking forward while uncontrollably looking back. -- Juliet Grames, author of The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna 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 <i>The Leavers</i> This epic novel is both the sweeping story of one country's fraught history and an intimate look at a couple's enduring bond -- Best Books of 2025 * Real Simple * In Homeseeking, Karissa Chen brings a rare delicacy to the pain of history, exploring what it means for generations to be simultaneously imprisoned by and separated from the past. Her characters linger with desperate vividness in each other's memories - as they long will in her readers' imaginations -- Elizabeth Kostova, author of <i>The Historian</i> Karissa Chen is a brilliant and patient storyteller, weaving the entwined histories of two unforgettable characters separated and reunited across time and distance in this tender, riveting novel. Chen's lush descriptions and rich historical details offer much for readers to see and hear and imagine as we follow Suchi and Haiwen from their Shanghai neighborhood to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Los Angeles. A sweeping, poignant work of history, memory, and survival, Homeseeking is an enduring love story and a debut to treasure -- Nicole Chung, author of <i>A Living Remedy</i> A tender and captivating story about fate and loss, hope and love, expertly intertwined with modern Chinese history. Uniquely told through two lovers whose perspectives begin at opposite ends of their timelines, Karissa Chen's beautiful debut will take your heart on a journey! -- Eve J. Chung, author of <i>Daughters of Shandong</i> Homeseeking is a layered, beautifully written, and deeply moving novel. Karissa Chen masterfully blends love, music, history, and heartbreak to create a sweeping tale that spans decades and continents. 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, author of <i>the Girl with the Louding Voice</i> Wonderfully cinematic, gorgeously orchestrated . . . like any tried-and-true epic (think Pachinko or The Joy Luck Club) . . . Homeseeking is just a genuine pleasure to read. * San Francisco Chronicle * [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 * While Karissa Chen's sweeping epic, Homeseeking, centers on war, love and family, more than anything it's about the immigrant's phantom limb - the longing for home and for the lives and loves left behind . . . The ambition and scope of Homeseeking are impressive enough before considering Chen's craft and execution. It is impossible not to marvel at the many strands she has woven into this beating heart of a novel . . . It is rare that a 500-page book delivers on its weight, and even rarer that a book I'm asked to review becomes an all-time favorite. But 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 exist . . . Just as I did, many readers are bound to find their home within the pages of Chen's unforgettable debut. * Washington Post * The epic sweep of Karissa Chen's debut, Homeseeking, spans borders, oceans, decades, and wars to unfurl the tale of Suchi and Haiwen, 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 1970s Taiwan to 1980s New York, and finally, to late-2000s Los Angeles - where the now elders reconnect to see if they can overcome their past traumas. Pachinko-like in scope, it too illustrates how individual lives, here of the Chinese diaspora, are buffeted by history and geopolitics, and that the ensuing pain and loss can be borne across a lifetime -- Lisa Wong Macabasco, Best Books of 2025 * Vogue * An epic and intimate tale of one couple across sixty years as the world pulls them together and apart. Following two separated lovers through six decades of tumultuous Chinese history, Homeseeking is a detailed portrait of the Chinese diaspora and the power of love and loyalty against all odds * Chicago Review of Books *

Author Information

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.

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