Longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s 2022 First Novel Prize!Belinda Huijuan Tang’s debut
novel is a beautifully drawn sensitively rendered portrait of a man desperately searching for
his father—and for reconnection to the past and people he once knew and loved. Both rich in
historical detail and timeless in scope A Map for the Missing explores the costs of choosing
your own path whether what’s left behind can ever be retrieved and whether it is possible to
forgive the wounds we inevitably inflict on each other.” —Celeste Ng #1 New York Times
bestselling author of Little Fires EverywhereAn engrossing saga of a young mathematician caught
between two countries two cultures two eras and two loves. Set against the violent turmoil
of the Chinese Cultural Revolution this powerful debut explores the wrenching impact of
political ideologies on individual lives in a way that is resonant and timely.” —Ruth Ozeki
author of The Book of Form and Emptiness and A Tale for the Time BeingAn epic mesmerizing
debut novel set against a rapidly changing post–Cultural Revolution China A Map for the
Missing reckons with the costs of pursuing one’s dreams and the lives we leave behindTang
Yitian has been living in America for almost a decade when he receives an urgent phone call
from his mother: his father has disappeared from the family’s rural village in China. Though
they have been estranged for years Yitian promises to come home. When Yitian attempts to piece
together what may have happened he struggles to navigate China’s impenetrable bureaucracy as
an outsider and his mother’s evasiveness only deepens the mystery. So he seeks out a childhood
friend who may be in a position to help: Tian Hanwen the only other person who shared Yitian’s
desire to pursue a life of knowledge. As a teenager Hanwen was sent down” from Shanghai to
Yitian’s village as part of the country’s rustication campaign. Young and in love they dreamed
of attending university in the city together. But when their plans resulted in a terrible
tragedy their paths diverged and while Yitian ended up a professor in America Hanwen was
left behind resigned to life as a midlevel bureaucrat’s wealthy housewife. Reuniting for the
first time as adults Yitian and Hanwen embark on the search for Yitian’s father all the while
grappling with the past—who Yitian’s father really was and what might have been. Spanning the
late 1970s to 1990s and moving effortlessly between rural provinces and big cities A Map for
the Missing is a deeply felt examination of family and forgiveness and the meaning of home.
