Ahn Love

A dreamy, poignant romp, Ahn Love opens with Margaret visiting her widowed father, Sam Ahn, on his ninetieth birthday. His crippling loneliness—anchored in the belief that if his orchids ever bloom, his late wife will return—transports Margaret back to the summer of 1969 and the Ahns’ seven-day cruise across the Pacific.

On that fateful voyage, a teenage Margaret—nicknamed Monkey—witnessed the unraveling of her family: her beloved but servile Uncle Bong’s betrayal, her mother’s fateful encounter with a Brazilian playboy, and the first stirrings of her own awakening. Amid the glittering decks and restless seas, Margaret experiences the dizzying highs and crushing lows of youth—magic, tragic, exotic, and erotic—all new to her, including a brief but intoxicating romance with the dashing Adam Kang, a young Korean Brit.

As memory and present entwine, Ahn Love becomes a tender meditation on desire, loss, and the fragile beauty of time—where the seeds of love and heartbreak are sown in equal measure.