by Allison King
First published 2025
Monica Tsai sits at her computer most days, coding a program that connects strangers while journaling her quiet life as a college freshman. She worries constantly about her ninety-year-old grandmother Yun, whose memory fades as she rarely speaks of surviving two wars in China. Monica searches for Yun's long-lost cousin through the very program she helps build. A young woman contacts Monica through the platform, offering a single pencil that reveals an astonishing clue about her family's past. Monica learns that women in her lineage possess the ability to Reforge pencils, bringing the memories contained within their graphite back to life. The story weaves between Monica's present-day discovery and Yun's wartime memories of working at the Phoenix Pencil Company in Shanghai with her cousin Meng. As World War II devastates the city, Yun and Meng master their inherited gift of Reforging words from pencils. When the government discovers their secret ability, they face a terrible choice between survival and betraying the stories of others through espionage. Monica's journey to uncover these buried family secrets becomes a race to restore connections across generations before her grandmother's memories disappear forever.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, fantasy, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, haunting, intimate, introspective, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: dual-timeline, found-family, generational-connection, magical-inheritance
Setting: Shanghai, Phoenix Pencil Company, China
Period: World War II, 21st century, College era
368 pages · Paperback · William Morrow Paperbacks
Content warnings: death, war