Publishing professional Vincent Yu's accomplished debut novel, Seek Immediate Shelter, reads like an interlinked story collection; nine chapters spotlight nine residents of small-town Beckitt, Mass., amid a terrifying crisis. A broadcast emergency warning reading "BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL" would send most recipients into a chaotic spin. Eighteen minutes later, the Beckitt residents receive a "FALSE ALARM" notification, but their lives are irrevocably altered in that pivotal interval.
David Li attempts to drive out of the garage before it's fully open and without his wife and infant son; a public relations expert, he continuously fumbles to contrive an acceptable spin to his actions beyond his wife's verdict that he's a "coward." Clare Hilldon loses her husband to a heart attack; his death reveals an extramarital affair and a young son. Russell Zhang refuses to leave his wife and son after placing them into the bathtub for safety; later, he follows a provocatively mysterious text message: "I've never stopped thinking about you." Nina Chang nearly destroys an already strained relationship with her daughter with a cruel, thought-to-be-final text message; after, she must still confess her impending death. Chase Sun, the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency employee responsible--and publicly reviled--for the false alarm, is pushed "toward a richness of possibility."
Yu creates a delightful puzzle of diverse characters, overlapping and interrelated by small-town intimacy, for attentive readers to connect. Facing impending doom understandably causes a range of reactions. With exacting insight, scathing truth, and surprising humor, Yu deftly plumbs snap decisions and the lasting complex consequences that follow. --Terry Hong