Memory Piece

Reviews

Praise for Memory Piece:

"Adventurous...Lisa Ko's socially astute and formally innovative second novel, Memory Piece, takes readers back to the dawn of the Internet...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." –The New York Times

"Limber, ambitious...Memory Piece asks what hopes are worth clinging to, what parts of society are worth participating in, what powers are worth putting in the energy to fight. It 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.”–The Washington Post

“A sharp novel that spans the past, present, and future of a friendship.”–TIME

"A moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York's art, tech, and activism scenes across the decades."–Vogue, "Best Books of 2024"

"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

"Lisa Ko has brought us one of those rare, sumptuous tales of art and friendship that feels both universal and inimitable."–Elle, "Best (and Most Anticipated) Fiction Books of 2024"

"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."–Town & Country, "Most Anticipated Books of Spring"

“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

“Ko’s prose is beautiful and sharp, and her ability to shapeshift through a range of tones makes the novel a pleasure to read. . . a compelling, often chilling and beautifully observant novel about what connects us to, and disconnects us from, each other.” –BookPage

"The novel serves as an archive of our past and a vision for what’s to come, hauntingly beautiful in a way that’s both nostalgic and dystopian. In essence, Memory Piece is about the power of remembering, especially when it’s painful.”–Booklist

“Ko spans past, present, and future with the astute story of three Asian American women from the New York City tristate area over the course of their lives…A worthy follow-up to Ko’s striking debut.” –Publishers Weekly

“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, National Book Award finalist author of The Disappearing Earth

“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, National Book Award winning author of Red at the Bone

“Remarkable . . . vividly captures the urgency of youth, and becomes a heartbreaking elegy for a communal, almost utopian approach to urban life.” –Rumaan Alam, National Book Award finalist for Leave the World Behind

“Dazzlingly inventive and knowing, Memory Piece is a bold and affecting novel about resistance, solidarity, and friendship.”—Dana Spiotta, National Book Award finalist and author of Eat the Document

“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, bestselling author of How Much of These Hills is Gold Expand reviews