Gingko Season

After suffering her first big heartbreak two years earlier, Penelope Lin has built a quiet life with no romantic entanglements. She spends her days cataloging a museum’s vast collection of Qing Dynasty bound-foot shoes and in the comfortable company of close friends. One day, she happens to meet Hoang, who confesses to releasing mice from the cancer research lab where he works. Hoang’s openness catches Penelope off guard; from then on, she finds her carefully constructed life slowly start to unravel. Told in Penelope’s witty, vulnerable, and thoroughly endearing voice, Gingko Season captures three seasons of reawakening, challenges, and transformation.

This wise and tenderhearted novel explores the nature of our deepest friendships as seriously as it does the dizzying terror and thrill of falling in love, and the complications of trying to live a life that matches your ideals.

"A stunning debut that immerses readers in a vibrant, layered world of introspection and discovery. Following Penelope as she navigates love, identity, and the complexities of city life, the novel masterfully balances poignant observations on relationships with moments of quiet beauty. Xu Elegant’s lyrical prose captures the rhythms of daily life, while also exploring deeper themes of belonging and cultural heritage. This is a deeply moving, thought-provoking read that will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt adrift and sought meaning in the everyday." -- Weike Wang, author of Joan is Okay and Chemistry
"A deeply funny portrayal of young adulthood’s most classic anxieties. Naomi Xu Elegant nails the earnest confusion of one’s mid-twenties as told through the modern parlance of situationships, ethical altruism, and diasporic angst. This is a novel interested in dissecting the feeling of feelings—and wondering aloud about the grace of living a so-called small life." -- Delia Cai, author of Central Places
"Exquisitely written and deeply felt. Suffused with a gentle, ever-precise sense of humor, Gingko Season is a resonant and tender portrayal of the complexities of connection and attachment. [It] perfectly captures the loneliness and hope of youth, and the delightfully disorienting sensation of becoming unmoored in love." -- Gina Chung, author of Sea Change and Green Frog

Naomi Xu Elegant is a writer and journalist living in New York City. Her work has appeared in Monocle, Fortune, Atlas Obscura, and elsewhere.

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