A World Between
A Novel
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A college fling between two women turns into a lifelong connection—and spells out a new kind of love story for a millennial, immigrant America.
“A sweetly poignant look at the transformative power of young love.” —O, The Oprah Magazine
In 2004, college students Eleanor Suzuki and Leena Shah meet in an elevator. Both girls are on the brink of adulthood, each full of possibility and big ideas, and they fall into a whirlwind romance. Years later, Eleanor and Leena collide on the streets of San Francisco. Although grown and changed and each separately partnered, the two find themselves, once again, irresistibly pulled back together.
Emily Hashimoto’s debut novel perfectly captures the wonder and confusion of growing up and growing closer. Narrated in sparkling prose, A World Between follows two strikingly different but interconnected women as they navigate family, female friendship, and their own fraught history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hashimoto's debut immerses readers in the complicated relationship between two women as they weather a college romance, heartbreak, and friendship. In 2004 Boston, Eleanor, a "queer biracial Asian Jewish girl" who is stirred by the writings of Audre Lorde, bumps into the beautiful Leena in the elevator of her college dorm. Within a month, their tentative makeout sessions evolve into ravenous sex, but by the end of the semester, Leena calls it off. Six years later, Leena is dating a man and under pressure to satisfy her Indian family's desire for family and children. Then she bumps into Eleanor in San Francisco, and the two grow closer after Eleanor moves to New York for a job and becomes Leena's roommate. Eleanor to Leena narrate alternating chapters over the course of the year as the two women navigate how they fit in one another's lives. Hashimoto chronicles Eleanor and Leena's relationship with an intensity that speaks to the enduring power of their initial bond despite the obstacles that fall between them, and while the story of their complicated relationship is strongly felt, a coda set in 2017 ultimately makes the plot feel contrived. Still, Hashimoto consistently charms.
