XiXi Tian's aching sophomore title, All the Way Around the Sun, explores fractured family dynamics following the death of a firstborn. Stella Chen, the surviving younger sister, narrates, often addressing Sam directly as "you," unable to let him go.
"Enjoy being an only child," Sam whispered before boarding his Boston flight. The casual comment proved prescient: Sam died in his Harvard dorm room. For Stella and her parents, "figuring out how to adjust to our new reality" includes a move from small-town Illinois to San Diego. Displacements aren't new to Stella--she and Sam were raised in rural China by their beloved grandmother, reuniting with their parents in the U.S. when Stella was eight. But with just one semester of high school left before she's expected to go to college, Stella's struggles amplify. Terrified of following in her brother's footsteps, she hasn't yet completed her college visits. Her parents arrange for her to do her campus tour with Alan, the son of old family friends; he and Stella had been inseparable back in Illinois. California Alan, though, hasn't even acknowledged her at her new school. Now they'll be driving along the coast with plenty of time to disclose wrenching secrets and overdue confessions.
Tian (This Place Is Still Beautiful) writes with visceral vulnerability: beyond the devastation of loss, the stifling toll of being left behind seems unbearable. Confronting the family's stagnation helps Stella remake her life, and live. Fans of Mary Y.K. Choi's Yolk and Joanna Ho's The Silence that Binds Us will find strong resonance here. --Terry Hong