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Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

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Harmless Like You Kindle Edition

by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.0 490 ratings

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WINNER OF THE 2017 AUTHORS' CLUB FIRST NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF A BETTY TRASK AWARD

'Announces a startling talent' Guardian

'This brilliant debut novel is cause for celebration' Lorrie Moore

Written in startlingly beautiful prose, HARMLESS LIKE YOU is set across New York, Berlin and Connecticut, following the stories of Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki's son Jay who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront his mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old.

An unforgettable novel about the complexities of identity, art, adolescent friendships and familial bonds, offering a unique exploration of love, loneliness and reconciliation.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2016 BOOKS ARE MY BAG BREAKTHROUGH AUTHOR AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2016 JHALAK PRIZE

'A refreshing, bold book' Sunday Telegraph

'Slick and intelligent' Stylist

Print length

321 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Sceptre
Publication date

August 11, 2016
File size

3696 KB
Page Flip

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Word Wise

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Enhanced typesetting

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Yuki's story feels compellingly immediate, as prickly and unpredictable as its protagonist."

-- "Washington Post"

"Buchanan's prose is lyrical and evocative... [She] reminds us, the ethereal dreams of the 1960s shaped the all-too-solid contours of the world we inhabit today."

-- "New York Times Book Review"

"Worth reading for the beauty and originality of the prose, for the questions Buchanan raises about art and heritage, and for the characters who are sometimes as maddening as they can be magnificent."

-- "Boston Globe"

"Shifts in time and viewpoint present listening challenges, but easily identifiable characters and clear and crisply paced performances from both narrators provide skillful guidance...Buchanan's gifts for lyrical description and nuanced character development, ably presented by Zeller and Ochlan, create an appealing audiobook."

-- "AudioFile"

About the Author

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan received a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Asian American Writers' Workshop Margins Fellowship.

P. J. Ochlan, an Audie Award-winning and multiple AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks. His acting career spans more than thirty years and has also included Broadway, the New York Shakespeare Festival, critically acclaimed feature films, and regular roles in television series.

Emily Woo Zeller's multilingual, multicultural framework led to a natural fit as an audiobook narrator. While she specializes in Asian American narratives, Emily's work spans a broad spectrum, including young adult fiction. She won an AudioFile Earphones Award for her narration of Gulp by Mary Roach.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01C3LHRT0
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sceptre (August 11, 2016)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 11, 2016
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3696 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 321 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1473638321

Best Sellers Rank: #4,140,738 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #98,646 in Literary Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #266,466 in Literature & Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #277,535 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.0 490 ratings

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Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

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Rowan Hisayo Buchanan is a Japanese-British-Chinese-American writer. Her debut novel, Harmless Like You was published in 2016 by Sceptre and won the Author’s Club First Novel Award and a Betty Trask award. It was also shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Books Are My Bag Breakthrough Author Award and longlisted for the Jhalak Prize. Rowan Hisayo Buchanan was the recipient of a Margins fellowship for the Asian American Writers Workshop, has a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently working on a PhD at the University of East Anglia. Her writing has appeared in the short story anthology How Much the Heart Can Hold (Sceptre), the Guardian, New York Times, Granta, The Paris Review and The Atlantic among other places. She has lived in London, New York, Tokyo, Madison and Norwich.

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4 out of 5

490 global ratings

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dtt

Beautifully written. Have given it to a number of ...

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2017

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Beautifully written. Have given it to a number of friends, who have all said they thought it was wonderful: moving but with an underlying subtle humor..

One person found this helpful

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Tokyo Joe

Delusions and deceptions

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2017

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Engrossing family drama and exploration of the inner lives and pain of a vulnerable young woman navigating life n love in NYC

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2020

The character of the mother is beautifully drawn and allows for a picture of motherhood that is as messy and conflicted as I think it is for many women. The author does an incredible job of showing how both mother and son move through the world in the aftermath of their fractured relationship.

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SusannahB

Harmless?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

Moving between the 1960s/70s and 2016 ‘Harmless Like You’ focuses on Yuki, a Japanese girl who is sixteen years old when we first meet her. Born in Tokyo, but now living in New York with her parents, Yuki feels out of place and out of step with the other girls at her school. When she meets the beautiful, waif-like Odile, herself a bit of an outsider, the pair become close friends, and when Yuki’s parents go back to Tokyo, Yuki manages to persuade her family to let her stay in New York to finish her education and to hopefully realise her dreams of becoming an artist. Moving into Odile’s mother’s apartment, Yuki finds herself becoming closer than she should to Lou, Odile’s mother’s lover, a situation which she initially thinks will change her life for the better. But does it? In the sections of the novel where we move to 2016 we read of Yuki’s son, Jay, who Yuki abandoned when he was two years old, and of the lasting effect Yuki's abandonment has had on Jay's life - to the extent of causing significant problems with his wife and his newly-born daughter.

A beautifully written story full of painterly descriptions and, for a debut novel, one that is very good indeed. As noted by another reviewer writing here, neither Yuki nor Jay are entirely sympathetic as characters, both of whom put their own needs above those around them and I did find myself becoming slightly irritated by Yuki's passivity; however, if one looks beyond that, one can see that Yuki has problems with identity, she feels dislocated and alienated and is suffering from some sort of depressive illness - and, as a consequence of his mother’s desertion, Jay's mental health is also suffering too. A story of art, creativity, identity and alienation, this is a novel that I read from start to finish in almost one sitting and one which has made me interested in the author’s second novel ‘Starling Days’.

4 Stars.

One person found this helpful

Client d'Amazon

Different

Reviewed in France on June 24, 2017

Verified Purchase

Very raw and artistic. Not my style of book but I still loved it. It somehow still inspired me and my inner artist with how realistic and disturbing it was.

Miquel Escodaire

No es inofensiva; buena literatura

Reviewed in Spain on May 7, 2018

Verified Purchase

Las historias tristes de una joven japonesa, aspirante a artista, en la Nueva York de los años 60 y 70; y de su hijo, a quien abandonó, comerciante de arte, en la actualidad. Personajes bien desarrollados, con mucha inseguridad, vulnerables. Narrada de forma artística, p.e. los capítulos principales empiezan con el nombre de un color y su descripción. ¡Bella literatura!

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stells

Dynamic, confident writing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

Pacing kept me turning the pages. Character development consistent while setting and descriptive details made the whole book a believable and beautiful read.