Stay True

At once a coming-of-age memoir, a devastating elegy for a departed friend, and a mixtape of all the music and other shards of culture and experience that coalesce into an identity, Stay True is wildly original . . . A glorious, unforgettable book -- Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing
Impossible to put down . . . profoundly moving . . . a work of intellect, honesty and love * The Guardian *
A remarkably moving account of male affection and grief * The Observer *
A quiet, occasionally hilarious, ultimately devastating book . . . the most moving and memorable piece of autobiography I read this year. * The Independent, 'The Ten Best Books of 2023' *
An exceptional portrait of male affection and a young life senselessly cut short * The Independent, 'Best Memoir: 2023' *
A powerful and beautifully written meditation on guilt, memory and male friendship * The Guardian, 'Best Books of the Year' *
Quietly wrenching . . . This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion — all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life * The New York Times *
A beautiful memoir that goes deep into the heart of friendships * The Financial Times *
A luminous and tender-hearted story. . . Stay True is a nuanced and beautiful evocation of young adulthood in all its sloppy, exuberant glory * The Wall Street Journal *
[Hsu writes] with devastating emotional precision, questioning the possibility of meaning in tragedy and the value of the stories we tell while attempting to find it . . . an extraordinary, devotional act of friendship * The Washington Post *
This book is exquisite and excruciating and I will be thinking about it for years and years to come -- Rachel Kushner, author of The Mars Room
Remarkable . . . an evocative coming-of-age story about the formation of identity, friendship, and grief * AnOther Magazine *
This is writing at its best . . . one of those books that is the sum total of a writer’s life in thinking, craft, and curiosity, made felt at last, so that when the sentences come, they come with a deliberate, patient, and precise force -- Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
I was softly heartbroken by Stay True . . . [A] once-in-a-lifetime book -- Jia Tolentino, author of Trick Mirror
Not since Ann Patchett wrote about her friend Lucy Grealy in Truth and Beauty has there been such an achingly tender book about a platonic friendship * Los Angeles Times *
Funny and wise . . . What a gift it is to remember the people you loved, and who loved you, while you were busy becoming yourself * The Atlantic *
Stay True is about the beautiful, unpredictable alchemy of how friendship—particularly male friendship—forms in the first place * GQ *
A moving portrait of a persona undone by tragedy * Vogue *
This book is going to break your heart. * The Australian *