First published 2023
John Kim stands in his backyard staring at a dead stranger. His wife Sunny disappeared a year ago, leaving him estranged from his adult children Anastasia and Ronald. The family barely speaks anymore. Then John finds a letter on the corpse addressed to Sunny. Someone has been watching them. The investigation pulls them into Sunny's hidden past, back to 1977 when she arrived pregnant in Los Angeles from Korea. Her husband was distant and often gone. America felt nothing like her dreams. Loneliness consumed her until she met someone at a bus stop. That connection reached across decades into the present. As John and his children dig deeper, they uncover secrets that shatter everything they believed about Sunny. The truth puts their lives in danger. The Kim family must confront what parents hide from children and what spouses keep from each other.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, mystery-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: estranged-family, secrets
Setting: Korea, Los Angeles
Period: 1977, Present Day
412 pages · Kindle Edition · Atria Books
Content warnings: death