"Astonishing . . . beautiful and engrossing . . . a deftly handled mystery.” — Harper's Bazaar
“Wharton’s heartfelt debut centers on a British woman of Hong Kong descent trying to solve the mystery of her mother’s death. . . . the pitch-perfect pacing and well-crafted protagonists will keep readers turning the pages. This is a writer to look out for.” — Publishers Weekly
“Chinese British author Wharton presents the well-crafted story of Lily Miller; her older sister Maya; and the mystery behind a bequest of one million British pounds sterling (500,000 pounds each) made by a stranger named Hei-Fong Lee that the sisters can claim only by going to Hong Kong. . . . Wharton is skilled at creating characters. . . . A debut work of historical fiction with strong storytelling that readers of Lisa See, Jamie Ford, and Gail Tsukiyama will enjoy; book groups should appreciate this first novel and look forward to Wharton’s future work.” — Library Journal
“Sparkling prose and a page-turning plot combined with wonderful storytelling. . . . An absolutely dazzling debut.” — Julie Owen Moylan, author of That Green Eyed Girl
“An intriguing, beautifully written study of the stories we inherit. I loved being in Lily and Sook-Yin's heads, my heart breaking for them. . . . I loved it!” — Nikki May, author of Wahala
“A story of family, love, redemption and belonging, told with such heart and empathy. Wiz Wharton is a phenomenal talent, original, fresh, and with a pinpoint clarity to her prose that cuts right to the bone. She has created such a special book, with a story that needs to be told. Essential and utterly unforgettable.” — Fiona Scarlett, author of Boys Don't Cry
“Ghost Girl, Banana is an epic yet deeply intimate novel. I was rapt throughout, propelled by Wiz Wharton's taut, immersive prose. She swept me up in Sook-Yin and Lily's mirrored journeys of discovery, spanning decades and continents, but always I could feel the vibration of these women existing in the wider world; their stories are so skillfully shot through with the hum of change.” — Kate Sawyer, author of The Stranding
"Captivating characters and lucid prose." — Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring
"A gripping and evocative tale of family secrets, courage, adversity, and love." — Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
"Londoner Lily Chen descends into the maze of 1990s Hong Kong to piece together her late mother’s secret past in this slow-burning mystery....Two complex histories are nested within one another, a testament to the mutually inextricable struggles of a mother and daughter who, in life, pass each other like two ships in the night. Brimming with cinematic tension, this novel offers relationships and revelations more precious than a 500,000 pound inheritance." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The novel bounces between three different timelines, and Wharton skillfully navigates between each . . . To be marginalized, to never quite fit in, even with all her striving, is Sook-Yin's fate. But Lily's journey of self-discovery, so winningly chronicled by Wharton, promises a better fate for Sook-Yin's younger daughter." — New York Times Book Review
★ 2023-02-25
Londoner Lily Chen descends into the maze of 1990s Hong Kong to piece together her late mother’s secret past in this slow-burning mystery.
Some people learn about their family histories through photo albums and bedtime stories. Twenty-five-year-old Lily Miller, formerly Li-Li Chen, receives a letter in the mail at her London home informing her of a large inheritance from a stranger that has some connection to her late mother, Sook-Yin Chen. Still recovering from a suicide attempt she made while studying at Cambridge, Lily finds herself jolted out of her passive routine—volunteering and therapy—and takes off for the labyrinthine metropolis of Hong Kong two months before the 1997 handover from the U.K. to China. In alternating chapters we learn that, back in 1966, Sook-Yin was sent by her family from Kowloon to London to train as a nurse. The journey was less a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity than a semipermanent exile ending with her death in a suspicious “road accident.” In a series of gut-wrenching conversations, Lily discovers the price that Sook-Yin paid for surviving in her new environment: By choosing to “give up her culture” and become “a banana,” she lost the respect of her loved ones back home. Treading sure-footedly on uneven terrain, author Wharton unpacks chauvinist attitudes about race and nationality from the perspectives of both the colonized and the colonizers, painting, through bitter twists and turns, a picture of diasporic people whose origins are their most valuable MacGuffins. Two complex histories are nested within one another, a testament to the mutually inextricable struggles of a mother and daughter who, in life, pass each other like two ships in the night.
Brimming with cinematic tension, this novel offers relationships and revelations more precious than a 500,000 pound inheritance.
