The latest pick for Jenna Bush Hager’s Today show book club is Emma Nanami Strenner’s My Other Heart.
The novel, scheduled for publication Tuesday by Pamela Dorman/Viking, follows three characters: Mimi, a Vietnamese woman whose daughter vanishes in Philadelphia; Kit, a young Japanese woman adopted by a white couple; and Sabrina, the daughter of a Chinese immigrant. The three women’s lives cross paths at the end of an eventful summer. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “The whirlwind of drama in the last act compensates for the uneven portrait of teen life.”
Hager announced the book’s selection on the Today show, saying, “I love this book so much, you guys. It’s a story about mothers, daughters, friendship. It’s full of heart and full of twists. I could not put it down.…It’s a deeply moving book about motherhood, identity, and the invisible threads that [connect] us.”
Nanami Strenner told Today.com that the book was partially inspired by her own experiences traveling by air with her daughter.
“I think all the threads started to come together—you’re in this sort of strange purgatory when you’re in an airport, because you’re leaving a place behind while trying [to move into] the next place,” she said. “I think that’s where the two girls, Kit and Sabrina, are in this sort of in-betweenness themselves.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
