New books: Brooke Shields talks about the life of an almost 60-year-old | Advocate

Childhood lovers in Shanghai in the 1940s, Haiwen and Suchi believe that their fates will intertwine for life. However, their romance is interrupted when Haiwen secretly enlists in the Chinese Nationalist Army to save her brother. Six decades later, as elderly immigrants, “Sue” and “Howard” run into each other in a Los Angeles supermarket. Recently widowed Haiwen thinks it’s fate, but Suchi, running from her past, is wary. This love story from debut author Karissa Chen spans generations and the globe, moving between two perspectives to follow how war, dislocation, love and loss in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and the US shape the lovers’ lives.