Memory Piece

Barack Obama's Reading List 2024

Lisa Ko author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Dialogue

Publishing:20th Mar '25

£9.99

This title is due to be published on 20th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Memory Piece cover

A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF 2024 | A VOGUE BEST BOOK OF 2024 | ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE READS OF SUMMER 2024

'There's no doubting Ko's talent' Daily Mail
'Ambitious . . . [Ko] is unafraid to wrangle big ideas' Observer
'One of those rare, sumptuous tales' Elle

As teenagers, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong and Ellen Ng are drawn together by their sense of alienation. 'Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,' they embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.

By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As Giselle navigates an unfamiliar elite social world, Jackie contends with the internet's sinister shift towards surveillance and Ellen confronts the gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighbourhood, they must reckon with a world radically different from the one they dreamed of.

From the pre-digital 1980s to the visionary subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of friendship, art and ambition that asks: what is the value of a meaningful life?

Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable. -- “Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction Books of 2024” * Elle *
A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades. -- "Best Books of 2024" * Vogue *
There's no doubting Ko's talent . . . this epic is never less than engaging line by line. * Daily Mail *
Ambitious . . . [Ko] writes with a cool, collected intelligence and is unafraid to wrangle big ideas. * Observer *
Gritty and refreshingly girl-centric . . . It documents the last days of people being untrackable, able to disappear, and for this alone lingers in the imagination. * New York Times *
A sharp novel that spans the past, present and future of a friendship. * TIME *
A touching story . . . Like her previous book, The Leavers, it's sure to become a modern classic. * Press Association *
Remarkable . . . vividly captures the urgency of youth, and becomes a heartbreaking elegy for a communal, almost utopian approach to urban life. -- Rumaan Alam, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND
A group portrait of three women who wrest meaning from a world that is closing down around them, Memory Piece is bright with defiance, intelligence and stubborn love. To spend time with these characters is a gift. -- C Pam Zhang, author of HOW MUCH OF THESE HILLS IS GOLD
Evocative and luminous. Ko once again introduces us to people we want to know deeply, then as always, delivers that and beyond. A glorious writer. -- Jacqueline Woodson, author of RED AT THE BONE
Wild and wonderful, punk and propulsive, Memory Piece is about three friends growing from girlhood into a sinister new world. It is about authenticity, surveillance, capitalism, queerness, and the internet. It is about-it is-everything. -- Julia Phillips, author of THE DISAPPEARING EARTH
Dazzlingly inventive and knowing, Memory Piece is a bold and affecting novel about resistance, solidarity, and friendship. -- Dana Spiotta, author of EAT THE DOCUMENT
An urgent book that asks you to reflect on moments that feel definite but are actually transient, which is a real gift. Beautifully crafted too, whilst being so ambitious in its reach. -- Jeffrey Boakye, author of BLACK, LISTED
Ko paints a vivid portrait of friendship, ambition, gentrification and the ethics around all three. * Grazia *
While it's a book about gentrification, surveillance, Big Tech, and elitism, it's also a book about the triumph of community, friendship and love. * Dazed *
A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades. -- "The Best 14 Books of 2024 So Far" * British Vogue *
Limber, ambitious . . . [Memory Piece] belongs to an American literary tradition that includes Dana Spiotta, George Saunders and their patron saint, Don DeLillo: writers whose characters sense that their lives happen at the whim of forces too enormous to understand or evade, but set out to dodge them anyway. * The Atlantic *
[Ko] draws characters with such deftness that they feel wholly alive. Details add up over time to create dazzling dimensionality. We see the characters as they see themselves, and as they see each other, allowing for a panoramic view. * Washington Post *
Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad meets Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life - if the latter were 500+ pages shorter, infinitely less traumatic, and centered on a triad of Asian American women. * Oprah Daily *
A moving, sharply observed portrait of friendship and discovering what it means to live a worthwhile life-whether or not it's anything like what we'd hoped. -- 'Most Anticipated Books of Spring' * Town & Country *
A poignant meditation on late-stage capitalism: what it means to exist in an age of surveillance and government tracking, what it means to create art in an era where identity itself is commodified and what it means to find purpose. * Electric Literature *

ISBN: 9780349704340

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

304 pages