Jack Wang, a Vancouver, B.C., transplant who teaches at New York's Ithaca College, confirmed he could write exquisite short fiction in his debut collection, We Two Alone. He underscores that prowess in a gloriously absorbing first novel, The Riveter.
Six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Josiah Chang arrives in Vancouver. He's his family's fourth Canadian generation--his "great-grandfather had been a forty-niner, but a poor one"--and yet Josiah can't call himself Canadian, can't serve the country of his birth. "At the start of the war, Chinese had been allowed to enlist" until "Victoria and Ottawa realized that the Chinese might expect something in return, namely citizenship." Josiah's Chinese features mean the rooming house claims no vacancies, leaving him to set up camp in the wild woods. At least he's "fighting the good fight" as a shipyard riveter.
When he falls in love--requitedly--with co-worker Poppy Miller, marriage isn't an option because antimiscegenation laws will render Poppy stateless. Racist, impetuous violence causes Josiah to flee east. In Toronto, despite his noncitizenship, the local recruiting station agrees he can risk his life as a paratrooper. "Your people are rather... meek," the army psychiatrist posits, but Josiah's--and his comrades'--valor never wanes. His dream of returning to Poppy is what will keep him alive.
Wang is a potent storyteller, unblinkingly combining horrific history with an aching love story. He intimately intertwines the worst and best of humanity as his narrative seamlessly moves back and forth between Canada and various European fronts. Astoundingly accomplished, Wang's virtuoso novel haunts with poignance and grace. --Terry Hong