Central Places

Delia Cai Merky Books £9.99

With an intense Manhattan media job and a wealthy white fiance, 27-year-old Audrey Zhou has come far from small-town Illinois, where she grew up as the child of Chinese immigrants. A rare Christmas trip back to introduce her husband-to-be to her family confirms this but also makes her doubt her future. As she’s pitched into a quarter-life identity crisis, an unrequited high-school crush provokes a romantic reckoning, too. Cai’s pacy debut pairs comedy with sharp observations about class and kin, race and roots.