—Idra Novey, author of Those Who Knew

“Mesmerizing . . . Truong focuses on the mostly neglected women in Hearn’s life, imagining the struggles and sorrows of his mother, and, looking at him through the eyes of his two wives, imparts searing counterpoints to the iconic Hearn. . . . In going beyond the knowable and guiding us through the imaginable, Truong takes the measure of the man through his women in coruscating prose.”

—Jeff Kingston, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[A] sparkling, imaginative historical novel.”

—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“In The Sweetest Fruits, Monique Truong does what she does best, painting a vivid portrait of privilege, restlessness, and tenacity through the conflicting experiences of characters grappling with their senses of love, family, and home.”

—Kevin Chau, Literary Hub (Most Anticipated Books of 2019)

“This novel is not Lafcadio Hearn’s, but rather it belongs to the women of his life, who again are living and breathing, thanks to Truong . . . [she] allows each woman to speak her mind, and words are freed after years of being silently bound. . . . Thanks to Truong’s perfect rendering of their voices, justice has finally spoken and those women’s voices find both life and peace.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In this globetrotting, luminous novel, the three narrators offer an honest, contradictory portrait of the man they knew that highlights the social expectations of their gender, race, and class for their time. Like [Truong’s] first novel, The Book of Salt, The Sweetest Fruits leads readers [into] a sweeping narrative that poses questions about belonging, existence, and storytelling.”

—Kate Gavino, The Millions

“A glorious imaginative reclamation of the stories of those who loved and nurtured [Lafcadio] Hearn and his storytelling.”

—Electric Literature

“An absorbing dive into disparate places and societies, [The Sweetest Fruits] illustrates the critical roles women have played in the accomplishments of men. It also offers an intimate portrait of each region’s food culture, told through its characters.”

—Food & Wine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Monique Truong is the author of two novels, The Book of Salt and Bitter in the Mouth, and her work has been published in fifteen countries. Her awards and honors include the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship, the New York Public Library Young Lions Award, the Asian American Literary Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Rosenthal Family Foundation Award. She lives in Brooklyn.

First published in Australia in 2021

by Upswell Publishing

Perth, Western Australia

www.upswellpublishing.com

First published in the United States of America by Viking,

an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2019

Published in Penguin Books 2020

This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission.

Enquiries should be made to the publisher.

Copyright © 2021 by Monique Truong

The moral right of the author has been asserted.