Historical Fiction Review: A Map for the Missing

Summary: An interesting story, but the characters’ own emotional detachment made it hard for me to get into it.

When Tang Yitian’s mother tells him that his father had disappeared from their village in rural China, he feels compelled to fly home from the US. Once there, he renews his relationship with a childhood sweetheart, leading them both to miss the potential of their youth.

As with Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, I enjoyed following these characters over decades of their lives, but was surprised not to feel more emotionally connected to the story. In this case, I think my disconnect was driven by how flat the characters’ emotions were. I wasn’t convinced by their investment in each other, which made it harder for me to care about what happened to them either.

The story was fairly slow, but I didn’t mind that. Their was some suspense about whether Tang Yitian’s father would be found. I also enjoyed learning about his past in flashbacks throughout. Unfortunately, without more emotional investment in this story, I still didn’t find it a particularly satisfying read.

The post Historical Fiction Review: A Map for the Missing appeared first on Doing Dewey.