Thai Chinese writer Pim Wangtechawat's bold, melancholic, and ultimately beautiful first novel, The Moon Represents My Heart, explores the good and the bad of family legacies. Joshua and Lily Wang and their twin children, Tommy and Eva, share a secret: their family can travel to the past. This gift seems like a blessing. What other family has the opportunity to meet Bruce Lee the night before the premiere of Fist of Fury? But when the children are 12 years old, Joshua and Lily go on a time trip alone and never return. Tommy and Eva live with their grandmother and continue to use their gifts, despite her exhortations. Eva moves to Hong Kong as an adult and builds a life with their extended family, but Tommy falls deeply in love with a woman from London's Chinatown in the 1930s. He is unable to fully be with her and unable to let her go, and his choices drive him away from Eva and the people who love him.
Wangtechawat demurs from explaining the mechanics of time travel, making for less a speculative novel and more a drama of family, grief, and finding home. The narrative crosses back over itself frequently, time-hopping from the 1930s to the early 2000s with detours through the 1980s and elsewhere, giving readers a taste of life outside the boundaries of chronological time. This heartfelt story of loss, disenfranchisement, and rebuilding showcase Wangtechawat's skill and sensitivity. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads