Winner of The Story Prize Spotlight Award
Winner of the PEN/Open Book Award
Longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize
"This splendid story collection is a sword through the heart."—Ben Fountain
Spanning more than 150 years, and set in multiple locations in colonial and postcolonial Asia and the United States, Inheritors paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of its characters as they grapple with the legacies of loss, imperialism, and war.
Written from myriad perspectives and in a wide range of styles, each of these interconnected stories is designed to speak to the others, contesting assumptions and illuminating the complicated ways we experience, interpret, and pass on our personal and shared histories. A retired doctor, for example, is forced to confront the horrific moral consequences of his wartime actions. An elderly woman subjects herself to an interview, gradually revealing a fifty-year old murder and its shattering aftermath. And in the last days of a doomed war, a prodigal son who enlisted against his parents' wishes survives the American invasion of his island outpost, only to be asked for a sacrifice more daunting than any he imagined.
Serizawa's characters walk the line between the devastating realities of war and the banal needs of everyday life as they struggle to reconcile their experiences with the changing world. A breathtaking meditation on suppressed histories and the relationship between history, memory, and storytelling, Inheritors stands in the company of Lisa Ko, Viet Thanh Nguyen, and Min Jin Lee.
- ISBN10 0385545371
- ISBN13 9780385545372
- Publish Date 14 July 2020
- Publish Status Remaindered
- Out of Print 23 November 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Random House Books for Young Readers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780385545372