Certainty: A Novel

Certainty: A Novel by Thien, Madeleine. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780316834995.

Madeleine Thiens stunning debut novel hauntingly retells a crucial moment in history, through two unforgettable love stories. Gail Lim, a producer of radio documentaries, is haunted by the mystery of her fathers Asian past. As a child, Gails father, Matthew Lim, lived in a Malaysian village occupied by the Japanese. He and his beloved Ani wandered the jungle fringe under the terrifying shadow of war. The war shattered their families, splitting the two apart until a brief reunion years later. Matthews profound connection to Ani and the life-changing secrets they shared cast a shadow that, later still, Matthews wife, Clara, desperately sought to understand. Gails journey to unravel the mystery of her parents lives takes her to Amsterdam, where she unearths more about this mysterious other woman. But as Gail approaches the truth, Anis story will bring Gail face-to-face, with the untold mysteries of her own life. Vivid, poignant, and written in understated yet powerful prose, CERTAINTY is a novel about the legacies of loss, the dislocations of war, and the timeless redemption afforded by love.