About the book
BOOK SUMMARY
During a hot summer, Jay develops feelings for Chuan while working on his family’s inherited farm, as his parents and the farm manager confront their own regrets and secrets.
Published 2025
Literary Fiction
288 pages
Lovely prose, pleasant but unremarkable
May 17, 2026
This is a meditative coming-of-age story set in Malaysia in the nineties. The fluid, understated prose is really lovely; however, I wish I would have gotten a hard copy rather than the audio version of the book, because I found the narrator’s accent difficult to understand at times.
It offers a fresh perspective of gender, class, and family dynamics in an area of the world I’m not particularly familiar with. It gave me “My Brilliant Friend” vibes, although perhaps I was primed to think that just because I had heard it was also planned as a quartet.
I don’t have anything negative to say about it, but it didn’t personally blow me away in any kind of special way. It was a quick, pleasant read.
kelsi’s reading diary 