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Inheritors

By: Asako Serizawa
Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Ren Hanami, Catherine Ho, Greta Jung, Akie Kotabe, Nancy Wu
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Publisher's summary

"This splendid story collection is a sword through the heart." (Ben Fountain)

From the O. Henry Prize-winning author comes a heartbreakingly beautiful and brutal exploration of lives fragmented by the Pacific side of World War II.

Spanning more than 150 years, and set in multiple locations in colonial and postcolonial Asia and the United States, Inheritors paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of its characters as they grapple with the legacies of loss, imperialism, and war.

Written from myriad perspectives and in a wide range of styles, each of these interconnected stories is designed to speak to the others, contesting assumptions and illuminating the complicated ways we experience, interpret, and pass on our personal and shared histories. A retired doctor, for example, is forced to confront the horrific moral consequences of his wartime actions. An elderly woman subjects herself to an interview, gradually revealing a 50-year-old murder and its shattering aftermath. And in the last days of a doomed war, a prodigal son who enlisted against his parents' wishes survives the American invasion of his island outpost, only to be asked for a sacrifice more daunting than any he imagined.

Serizawa's characters walk the line between the devastating realities of war and the banal needs of everyday life as they struggle to reconcile their experiences with the changing world. A breathtaking meditation on suppressed histories and the relationship between history, memory, and storytelling, Inheritors stands in the company of Lisa Ko, Viet Thahn Nguyen, and Min Jin Lee.

This audiobook contains a PDF family tree from the text.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Asako Serizawa (P)2020 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

Named a NYPL, Bustle, and Library Journal best book of the year and a most anticipated book of 2020 by Amazon, Electric Lit, & Chicago Review of Books

"Ambitious...Gripping...Serizawa’s fiction is convincingly rooted in the intimate, yet still provocatively collective, quandaries of her characters."—The New York Times Book Review

"Stunning and visceral...Serizawa's brave storytelling gives us more than an epic arc. She creates a narrative that is in and of itself a multidimensional space. As well, it's an homage to the surreal artistry of writers like Jorge Luis Borges — whose voice she manages to honor with a story which is not an echo but her own capacious, original illumination."—NPR, Morning Edition

“Serizawa’s ability to weave complex histories into the personal experiences of her characters proves that life is anything but linear.” —The Boston Globe

What listeners say about Inheritors

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moving, deep, expansive

Engrossing, thought-provoking stories. Nimbly exploring different patterns of interconnection-- among individuals, nations, histories, life forms, art forms. It begins subtly, quietly; the energy builds as each story echoes notes and characters from prior stories, creating complex resonances. Some of the readers seemed a little stiff, and some of them incorrectly pronounced basic Japanese words (like making "nabe" rhyme with "babe"), but that's just a minor stuff. Good stuff.

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