Hutchinson Heinemann to publish Emma Nanami Strenner's 'gorgeous' debut novel

Hutchinson Heinemann (HH) is set to publish Emma Nanami Strenner’s "gorgeous" debut novel My Other Heart. Publishing director Ailah Ahmed acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Sheila Crowley at The Curtis Brown Group. The novel will publish as a key debut in July 2025. Pam Dorman at Pamela Dorman Books Penguin Random House US, acquired North American rights. Both HH and Pamela Dorman Books acquired the novel in a pre-empt. 

The novel follows Mimi Traung and her baby daughter Ngan as they wait restlessly at the gates of Philadelphia airport in May 1998, waiting to travel back to Vietnam, but as they are preparing to board "the unimaginable happens".

The novel jumps 17 years as two best friends plan to discover their roots; Sabrina is preparing to travel to China to meet her mother’s family and Kit leaves for Tokyo, convinced that her biological mother is Japanese.

The synopsis continues: "Meanwhile, Mimi returns to Philadelphia in search of her lost child, tracing memories from that fateful day waiting at the gates. Each of these women are looking to find their place in the world. Eventually Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face and have to confront the people they truly are, dismantling their own assumptions about belonging and the importance of blood ties."

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