“I really loved getting to immerse,” says the author of her debut novel about two sisters in the 1920s
Credit: Lucas Foglia; Pantheon
NEED TO KNOW
- PEOPLE can exclusively reveal the cover of Sojourners, author Te-Ping Chen’s debut novel
- The story follows two sisters whose lives are upended when one goes missing and is presumed dead
- The author calls the book “an ode to a period in Hawaiian history that I really loved getting to immerse myself in”
Te-Ping Chen is publishing her debut novel.
PEOPLE has an exclusive first look at the author and journalist’s book Sojourners, out next year from Pantheon, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Set in 1920, the novel centers on Kana and Leilani Kau, who are growing up in a small village on Hawaii’s Big Island. They’re the daughters of Hilo, the owner of the town’s sole store that he wants to pass down to his kids one day.
Credit: Pantheon
Half Chinese and half Korean, the girls are also experiencing the shifting demographics of their home. Plantation workers are coming to the island in droves from Japan, China and Portugal, while tourism booms on the mainland.
The family’s lives are upended, however, when Leilani goes missing; after a period, she’s presumed dead. Kana, still a teenager, runs the store on her own while her parents grieve, until she hears a voice that sounds like Leilani’s on the radio. It’s the voice of a singer — and when Kana goes to see her perform, everything she thought about the last few years suddenly changes.
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The novel marks Chen’s debut. Chen’s short story collection, Land of Big Numbers, was published in 2021 and was chosen by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books that year.
Credit: Lucas Foglia
“I’m nervous and excited for this book to come out,” the author tells PEOPLE. “It’s about sisters, motherhood and family, so inevitably it feels very personal. But it’s also an ode to a period in Hawaiian history that I really loved getting to immerse myself in, a time when tourism was new and starting to change the islands, and I hope readers equally enjoy being transported.”
Chen also pays tribute to the cover of the book, which author Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai calls “a miracle of a novel” in an early review.
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“I like how this cover conjures up a feeling of mystery — one that permeates all relationships, of course,” she says. “And at times, above all, with the people who are closest to us.”
Sojourners will be published on June 1, 2027 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.
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