‘Mimi Truang did not yet know that her baby was gone. She sat back and closed her eyes, coffee in hand.’
– My Other Heart
[ About My Other Heart ]
May 1998: Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan wait restlessly at the gates of Philadelphia airport. There is still a day’s travelling left before they would land back home on Vietnamese soil. While they prepare to board, the unimaginable happens.
Seventeen years later, two best friends are discussing their summer plans before college over a piece of mooncake. Both have trips ahead in search of their roots: Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother’s family. Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese. Their parents watch on from the quiet suburbs of Chestnut Hill, nervous of what their daughters might find.
Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Each of these women are looking to find their place in the world. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties.
[ My Review ]
My Other Heart by Emma Nanami Strenner will publish July 17th with Hutchinson Heinemann. It is described as ‘a sweeping and heartfelt debut about finding your roots across borders and beyond blood-ties’. Receiving much acclaim from many well-known voices, this stunning debut is a glorious coming-of-age story that packs a seriously emotional punch.
1998 was the year that Mimi Traung’s life changed forever when her baby, Ngan, disappeared. Mimi was at Philidelphia Airport en route back home to Vietnam. She was tired and struggling, in dread of the journey ahead with a small baby, but she was ready to return back to the place of her birth, happy to leave the noises and smells of America behind. With limited English, Mimi had had to overcome many obstacles in America but nothing could ever have prepared her for the moments that followed Ngan’s vanishing. As Mimi wailed in anguish, the authorities were unable to grasp what was wrong, eventually sedating her and sending her home. Those important first few hours were lost, the search never undertaken and Mimi lost all hope, turning in on herself and stepping away from the world.
Kit and Sabrina are two best friends on the cusp of new beginnings. It’s 2015 and they are planning their summer before finalising college decisions and where their future may lie. Sabrina has been saving hard for a trip to China hoping to travel there and find out more about her mother’s people. Lee Lee, her mum, is extremely traditional in her views. They have little money, but Sabrina is very much aware of her mother’s love via the food she cooks for her and other gestures. Lee Lee is never overly affectionate with Sabrina. She has always worked hard to provide for them both but money has been tight. Sabrina now wants to travel to the country of her people and discover more about her extended family and her origin story.
Kit is convinced her biological mother is Japanese. Kit has lived a very privileged life in comparison to Sabrina. She has never needed for anything and has been very much the centre of her parents’ attention. When Kit decides she wants to visit Japan, her adopted parents are supportive of her trip and organise a place for her to stay with some long time friends. Kit is in awe of the Japanese lifestyle and the quality of life this family has and soon becomes quite immersed in her adventure.
As Sabrina and Kim experience very different summers, Mimi Traung gets the opportunity of a lifetime to return to America carrying the dream that she will soon be reunited with Ngan. For the past seventeen years as Mimi plodded through life she was always hopeful that she would someday look into the eyes of her daughter, convinced that she would recognise her anywhere.
Mimi, Sabrina and Kit are all on very different journeys, Each is hoping to make some life-changing discoveries but along the way they also start to questions themselves and the choices they have made. My Other Heart is a truly exquisite and striking debut novel that delivers something almost ethereal and magical as a beautiful but tragic story unfolds. Simultaneously heart-breaking, powerful and uplifting, these three characters are depicted with such a sensitive and gentle hand. Identity, the essence of this novel, is something we all crave. We want to feel a sense of belonging and to know where our roots are. Like nature, we are nourished with nurturing hands and love. Sabrina and Kit are only starting out on their journey and through this intimate tale, we witness them grow as people. Mimi has suffered a trauma and has forever looked for closure but will she finally achieve her wish?
Exceptional in every way, My Other Heart, is a novel that will leave you with a want for more. A refined and polished debut, this is one of those extraordinary books that will rightfully find its way into many hands. A special book, My Other Heart is quite simply a magnificent debut.
[ Thank you to Alice Dewing/Hutchinson Heinemann for an advance copy of My Other Heart in exchange for my honest review]
[ Bio ]
Emma Nanami Strenner has been a journalist for over twenty years. She has written for VOGUE International, ELLE, Stylist Magazine, Condé Nast Traveller and The Times. Emma is British Japanese and studied at the University of Leeds. She completed the Curtis Brown Creative Six-Month Novel Writing Course and is also a Faber Academy Alumni. She has spent much of her life living abroad in Japan, Vietnam, Australia, China, Singapore and the US. She currently lives in London. My Other Heart is her first novel.
