First published 2024
Asya and Manu walk through empty apartments in a foreign city, imagining their future in each space. The young couple debates what their life should become here. Can they invent their own customs? Who counts as family now? Asya works as a documentarian, filming scenes in the neighborhood park like a researcher studying local behavior. Her grandmother calls from home to scold her: "We named you for a whole continent and you're filming a park." Back in their home countries, relatives grow older and children grow up just out of reach. Meanwhile, the world Asya and Manu create together expands into something uniquely theirs. Each apartment viewing forces them to decide what they will keep from their past and what they must let go. Their search becomes a deeper question about building a home, sustaining a relationship, and finding belonging in an unfamiliar place.
Genres: literary-fiction, family-life, contemporary, relationships
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Africa, Asia
Period: 21st-century
183 pages · Hardcover · Bloomsbury Publishing