Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny central Illinois town where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she's become, from those she left behind.
But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle, her unrequited high school crush, forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?
Genre: Literary Fiction
But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey's proximity to her family and to Kyle, her unrequited high school crush, forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she's worked toward and everything she's imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Burns with complexity and compassion . . . Audrey's unforgettable story of self-discovery will speak to anyone who has ever stood on the precipice of change, who has ever felt in between, and who has ever wondered if looking back is part of moving forward." - Elaine Hsieh Chou
"Delia [Cai] does an incredible job of capturing the complicated feelings that returning home can evoke--especially when an old boyfriend is involved. I love this intergenerational immigrant tale and Delia's sharp social commentary about identity, and cultural differences. Delia Cai is an exciting new voice in fiction." - Emily Giffin
"A moving, nuanced novel about race, class, and the unspoken power dynamics of an interracial relationship, Central Places negotiates the personal and the political with unsparing precision. Delia Cai has created an indelible cast of uniquely complicated characters." - Jean Chen Ho
"An incandescent debut shedding light on old friendships, half-forgotten selves, and ferocious longings past and present, Central Places is a revelation, disquieting and so very moving, and dazzling with insight." - R O Kwon
"Delia Cai fully renders the uneasy marriage between past and present. Central Places is honest about the strangeness and revelation of returning home." - Raven Leilani
"A sensitive, sharp-eyed, slyly funny novel of venturing back into the foreign country that is your past--and discovering that you can never really shake the places and people that shaped you." - Celeste Ng
"Delia [Cai] does an incredible job of capturing the complicated feelings that returning home can evoke--especially when an old boyfriend is involved. I love this intergenerational immigrant tale and Delia's sharp social commentary about identity, and cultural differences. Delia Cai is an exciting new voice in fiction." - Emily Giffin
"A moving, nuanced novel about race, class, and the unspoken power dynamics of an interracial relationship, Central Places negotiates the personal and the political with unsparing precision. Delia Cai has created an indelible cast of uniquely complicated characters." - Jean Chen Ho
"An incandescent debut shedding light on old friendships, half-forgotten selves, and ferocious longings past and present, Central Places is a revelation, disquieting and so very moving, and dazzling with insight." - R O Kwon
"Delia Cai fully renders the uneasy marriage between past and present. Central Places is honest about the strangeness and revelation of returning home." - Raven Leilani
"A sensitive, sharp-eyed, slyly funny novel of venturing back into the foreign country that is your past--and discovering that you can never really shake the places and people that shaped you." - Celeste Ng
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