“A
moving, strikingly evocative exploration of New York’s art, tech,
and activism scenes across the decades.”–Vogue
The
award-winning author of The Leavers offers a visionary novel of
friendship, art, and ambition that asks: What is the value of a
meaningful life?
In
the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three
teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and
desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of
themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and
embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
By
the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance
artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never
conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early
egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift
toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist,
Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing
overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their
friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become
complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.
Moving
from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the
1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory
Piece is an innovative and
audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build
satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different
from the one they were promised.