Inheritors

Praise

“Stunning. . . . Serizawa’s brave storytelling gives us more than an epic arc. She creates a narrative that is in and of itself a multidimensional space.” —NPR

“Gripping . . . . Serizawa’s fiction is convincingly rooted in the intimate, yet still provocatively collective, quandaries of her characters.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Serizawa’s ability to weave complex histories into the personalexperiences of her characters proves that life is anything but linear.” —The Boston Globe

“This splendid book is a sword through the heart. Asako Serizawa depicts with rare acuity and nuance several generations of one far-flung family as it’s buffeted by the forces of war, migration,displacement, and that ultimate crucible, time.”—Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk

“These stories by Asako Serizawa are tremendous, intimate, startling, and essential; they show us how the past is sooften the most powerful force in what we idly call thepresent.” —Rivka Galchen, author of Little Labors

“Stunning. . . . With beautiful lyrical prose, Serizawa presents a powerful and heartbreaking look into the ways war, colonization, and loss affect not only the survivors, but the generations that inherit these stories.” —Booklist

“With her collection, Serizawa has made a point to pulltogether the emotional pieces of these devastating regional and world events. . . . It’s a noble undertaking, and one that feels necessary to remove some of the teeth from the horrors of that time for those who inherit it.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“Beautifully crafted, emotionally resonant, and profoundly moving. Asako Serizawa imbues her characters with so much depth and generosity that I felt as if I were reading about people I already knew and loved. An intensely powerful book by a writer with endless talent.” —Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans

“Powerful, intelligent. . . . A book that deserves to becomea crucial pillar in the literature of war. . . . Inheritors reveals an author of fierce intellect looking at war legacies from this angle and that, working her way into their nuances. By deconstructing the toolkit of the novel, Serizawa dodges the inevitability of a war narrative to offer a wistful hope or a melodramatic tragedy. Instead, she creates a more powerful form in which she can align the pieces to magnify each other like the lenses of a telescope.” —Kenyon Review

“[A] dynamic debut collection. . . . Serizawa delivers an elegant, stimulating web of stories.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“I was struck again and again not only by the remarkable scope and multiplicity of Inheritors but by the voices Serizawa inhabits—each is so distinct and yet wonderfully intimate. A book to be savored, slowly, overflowing with lifeblood and endurance.” —Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others

“An assured debut.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Powerful tales of men and women struck by war; in Serizawa’s stories, war has no winners.” —Asian Review of Books

“Masterly. . . . A seamless collection.” —Library Journal

“Powerful. . . . A meticulously plotted narrative puzzle.” —Shelf Awareness