In her outstanding debut novel, The Storm We Made, Malaysian American author Vanessa Chan depicts a wartime that is both extraordinary and quotidian at once. Her storytelling is crisp and bracing, without overlooking the profound complexities of events leading up to the Japanese occupation, as the novel explores every which way that the lives of one family in Kuala Lumpur are upended in the aftermath.
It's 1945, and the consequences of Cecily Alcantara's private choices are being borne out on a terribly global scale. But, worst of all, her son, Abel, has gone missing, on his 15th birthday. He's one in a string of disappearances--all teenage boys, all part of the smothering presence of the Japanese forces that replaced the British colonizers who had occupied Malaya before them. All the result of an affair that Cecily had begun in 1934 with Shigeru Fujiwara, a Japanese spy.
Chan showcases dazzling stylistic flair as she alternates between timelines, blending thematic touches of thrilling spy craft and domestic drama within the outlines of this spellbinding historical novel. And although Cecily blames herself for how unfortunately these events transpire, Chan makes clear the hope of prosperity that this unhappy housewife foresaw when she first entangled herself in Fujiwara's web of deceit and empty promises. "From the beginning, Cecily and Fujiwara had talked about a world in which Asians could determine their own future."
Profound in its empathy and devastating in its consequences, The Storm We Made considers the deeply personal implications of a world at war, and makes Vanessa Chan's first novel an unforgettable glimpse at how extraordinary times fall upon ordinary people. --Dave Wheeler, associate editor, Shelf Awareness