The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.Īutumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart their mothers are still best friends. With appeal to cynics and romantics alike, this profound exploration of life and love tempers harsh realities with the beauty of hope in a way that is both deeply moving and satisfying. This could be a sappy, saccharine story of love conquering all, but Yoon’s lush prose chronicles an authentic romance that’s also a meditation on family, immigration, and fate. Meanwhile, Natasha desperately attempts to forestall her family’s deportation and, despite herself, begins to fall for sweet, disarmingly earnest Daniel. Daniel-sure they’re meant to be-is determined to get Natasha to fall in love with him (using a scientific list). Daniel feels what in Japanese is called koi no yokan, “the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them.” The narrative alternates between the pair, their first-person accounts punctuated by musings that include compelling character histories. When Natasha and Daniel meet, Natasha’s understandably distracted-and doesn’t want to be distracted by Daniel. Fact: his parents, Korean immigrants, expect him to attend an Ivy League school and become an M.D. Daniel’s a poet who believes in love, something that can’t be explained. Fact: undocumented immigrants in the U.S., her family is being deported to Jamaica in a matter of hours. Natasha believes in science and facts, things she can quantify.

Natasha and Daniel meet, get existential, and fall in love during 12 intense hours in New York City.

Books like the sun is also a star