- by Yaa Gyasi
Like Pachinko, this sweeping novel traces how history and displacement shape two branches of a family across generations.
- by Phan Quế Mai Nguyễn, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, Que Mai Phan Nguyen, Nguyen Phan Que Mai, Nguy?n Phan Qu? Mai
A Vietnamese family’s story across generations offers a similarly intimate view of lives transformed by national upheaval.
- by Lisa See
Set on Korea’s Jeju Island, this novel follows women whose friendship and community endure through decades of change.
- by Julie Otsuka
Its collective portrait of Japanese immigrant women offers a formally distinctive bridge to stories of Asian diaspora and endurance.
- by Brit Bennett
Two sisters’ diverging lives and their daughters’ stories make this a compelling counterpart on family, heritage, and identity.
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Its interwoven stories of immigrant mothers and American-born daughters echo Pachinko’s attention to inherited history and cultural belonging.
- by Jhumpa Lahiri
This quietly observant novel follows a Bengali American family as parent-child bonds and cultural identity shift across generations.
- by Gail Tsukiyama
This intimate novel explores family ties and cultural encounter through a young man’s stay in a Japanese coastal village.
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
A family’s long history across India and the United States connects political change with the intimate consequences of separation.
- by Lisa Ko
A mother and son separated by migration anchor this moving exploration of belonging, family, and the meaning of home.
- by Lisa See
This multigenerational story links a mother and daughter across cultures while exploring heritage and the bonds that persist over distance.
- by Monique Truong
A Vietnamese cook’s perspective on expatriate life offers a more oblique, character-driven route into questions of identity and belonging.
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
A richly textured family novel in which social history and cultural expectations shape the intimate lives of its characters.
- by Cristina Henríquez
Through the lives of immigrant families in one apartment complex, it portrays the hopes and pressures of building a life in America.
- by Rebecca Makkai
Its linked lives across different eras offer a broad, compassionate portrait of how communities carry memory and loss.
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
This inventive novel connects a family’s migration story with inherited history and the search for identity across generations.
- by Kiran Desai
Moving between the Himalayas and New York, this novel examines the unsettled ties among heritage, migration, and family.
- by Maxine Hong Kingston
This influential memoir braids family stories and cultural inheritance into a searching account of Chinese American identity.
- by Amy Tan
A daughter’s effort to understand her immigrant mother brings family memory and cultural inheritance to the foreground.
- by Michael Ondaatje
Its layered treatment of memory, history, and lives displaced by war makes it a more formally adventurous companion.
- by Amy Tan
A mother’s account of her earlier life connects a Chinese past with the family she has built in America.
- by Pearl S. Buck
This classic follows a family’s fortunes across social change, with the rhythms of home and inheritance at its center.
- by Colleen McCullough
Its broad sweep across generations and decades makes it a strong choice for readers drawn to immersive family sagas.
- by Lisa See
This historical novel follows a lifelong female bond shaped by family customs and the constraints of its era.