Memory Piece

A BARACK OBAMA'S 2024 READING LIST title

"Remarkable . . . vividly captures the urgency of youth, and becomes a heart-breaking elegy for a communal, almost utopian approach to urban life." Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

"Bright with defiance, intelligence, and stubborn love. To spend time with these characters is a gift." C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills is Gold

In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. "Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves," they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.

By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet's early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighbourhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.

Moving from the pre-digital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.

Remarkable . . . vividly captures the urgency of youth, and becomes a heartbreaking elegy for a communal, almost utopian approach to urban life. -- Rumaan Alam, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND
A group portrait of three women who wrest meaning from a world that is closing down around them, Memory Piece is bright with defiance, intelligence, and stubborn love. To spend time with these characters is a gift. -- C Pam Zhang, author of HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD
Evocative and luminous. Ko once again introduces us to people we want to know deeply, then as always, delivers that and beyond. A glorious writer. -- Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE
Wild and wonderful, punk and propulsive, Memory Piece is about three friends growing from girlhood into a sinister new world. It is about authenticity, surveillance, capitalism, queerness, and the internet. It is about-it is-everything. -- Julia Phillips, author of THE DISAPPEARING EARTH
Dazzlingly inventive and knowing, Memory Piece is a bold and affecting novel about resistance, solidarity, and friendship. -- Dana Spiotta, author of EAT THE DOCUMENT
An urgent book that asks you to reflect on moments that feel definite but are actually transient, which is a real gift. Beautifully crafted too, whilst being so ambitious in its reach. -- Jeffrey Boakye, author of BLACK, LISTED
A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades. -- "Best Books of 2024" Vogue
Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable. -- “Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction Books of 2024” Elle
There's no doubting Ko's talent . . . this epic is never less than engaging line by line. Daily Mail
Ko paints a vivid portrait of friendship, ambition, gentrification and the ethics around all three. Grazia
Ambitious . . . [Ko] writes with a cool, collected intelligence and is unafraid to wrangle big ideas. Observer
While it's a book about gentrification, surveillance, Big Tech, and elitism, it's also a book about the triumph of community, friendship, and love. Dazed
A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades. -- "The Best 14 Books of 2024 So Far" British Vogue
A touching story . . . Like her previous book, The Leavers, it's sure to become a modern classic. Press Association

Lisa Ko is the author of The Leavers, which was a 2017 National Book Award for Fiction finalist, won the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, and was a finalist for the 2018 PEN/Hemingway Award. The Leavers was a national best seller and was named a 'best book of the year' by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Buzzfeed, The Los Angeles Times, and others. Ko's short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories and her essays and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times, The Believer, and elsewhere.

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