'Memory Piece' novel follows three Asian-American friends from the 1980s into 2040
Host Deepa Fernandes speaks with National Book Award finalist Lisa Ko about her new novel “Memory Piece,” which follows three Asian American women through the 1980s, late 1990 and 2040 and explores how their lives intersect and change.
Book excerpt: ‘Memory Piece’
By Lisa Ko
Before the raids, before the hidden compartments and career retrospectives, there was a lonely girl in her room. A lonely girl in a vast cocoon of a bedroom with her own computer, privacy unquestioned.
A lonely girl in a busy suburb, brother’s weights dropping across the hall, mother scolding her for spending too much time in her notebooks. A lonely girl in an apartment shared with sisters, and then alone. Secret journal entries, pilfered booze, furtive masturbation.
They were born in the same year, their families part of a network of Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese and Malaysian Chinese and Chinese Filipinos around New York,
