A touching and compelling story about love and loss. The characters and setting were wonderfully drawn and as a reader I felt heartbreak but also hope.

I have to confess that I did not finish this book, I just don’t think it was for me, having said that I will buy it for our library as I know other people will enjoy it.

In "A Map for the Missing", mathematics professor Yitian Tang receives an unexpected call from this mother in 1993; his father has mysteriously disappeared from their home in a rural village in Anhui, China. Even though Yitian has not spoken to his father in years, he agrees to return home to help. What follows is a story that traverses the present and Yitian's past, as we learn how he made his way as a farmer in China to his eventual position at an American university, and his eventual return to his homeland.

There is a lot of historical context needed to fully understand the weight of events in the 1970s, when Yitian is a teenager and China is moving past the death of Mao Zedong and the Cultural Revolution. Deng Xiaoping has taken leadership of the country, instituting his Boluan Fanzheng - policies that brought China closer to the modern world. Even though Yitian has grown up a commoner, a "countryboy", he dreams of taking the gaokao (高考), China's newly reinstituted national college entrance exam, a grueling, multi-day test that millions of other hopeful students will take in hopes of being accepted into one of the few slots. Yitian's father, however, is far from supportive and only praises his eldest son, Yishou, for his hard work in the fields. Nonetheless, Yitian is able to find solace and support in Hanwen, a girl from Shanghai who has been "sent down" to the village from Mao's earlier policies, and they both dream of what passing the gaokao can mean for them.

These events slowly bring us to the present, when Yitian returns to his hometown and is reunited with his mother and Hanwen. On the ongoing search for his father, we get to see the implications of Yitian's departure for America - how he's regarded by his neighbors and others in power, the assumptions made about him, and how his relationship with Hanwen has changed. It also paints an accurate picture of the country in the 1990s, with the pains of rapid growth and modernization, and the amount of corruption and bribery underlying these changes.

What I loved most about this novel, however, was how carefully and cohesively Belinda Huijian Tang is able to piece together a singular family in China, and the events that happened that led to their eventual falling out. The setting is firmly rooted in the events of the time, calling out the political and financial upheavals, the societal segregation, and struggles so many underwent. We get to see, piece by piece, the initial misunderstandings and differences in the Tang family, as well as the heartbreaking events that led to Yitian's eventual estrangement from his father. Yitian's efforts to pursue academics and move to America are representative of so many immigrant stories, and the ongoing racial inequity he faces in a new country hit home as well.

A word of caution: I have a hard time being completely objective about "A Map for the Missing" since there are so many elements in the novel that overlap with my own parents' stories and even my own, but it is nonetheless one of the best novels I've read this year that I devoured in less than a day.

Yitian has made it: an assistant professor of mathematics in the US now, once a country boy back in China. It’s 1993, he and his wife are trying to have a child, they have a life in America. And then - his mother calls. His father, a father he hasn’t spoken to in 15 years, is missing. Yitian drops everything and goes home to look for his father, where he is reminded of the reasons he left: his ambition to learn, the deaths of his grandfather and his brother Yishou, the longing for more, and the separation from his first love, Hanwen.

Through alternating timelines - Yitian’s childhood, and his present in the village - Wang tells a story of love and forgiveness, even when words fail. This was really beautiful, slowly building emotion as the story unfolded, sharing the frustration of going home again, and the complexity of familial relations. One of the final chapters was so beautiful, I had to cry.

I was lucky enough to win an advance copy of A MAP FOR THE MISSING by Belinda Huijuan Tang through a Shelf Awareness giveaway. Thanks for the early look, and have a safe and happy weekend!

A MAP FOR THE MISSING is a propulsive, lush novel that pulled me in from the first page and never let go. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, Belinda Huijuan Tang’s epic debut takes us on a man’s desperate search to reconnect with what he’s lost, to rediscover what he’s forgotten. I loved this novel.