Harmless Like You - Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

Written by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
Read by Emily Woo Zeller, P.J. Ochlan
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 80 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: HighBridge
Release date: February 28, 2017
Duration: 10:55:13

Written in startlingly beautiful prose, Harmless Like You is set across New York, Berlin, and Connecticut, following Yuki Oyama, a Japanese girl fighting to make it as an artist, and Yuki’s son Jay who, as an adult in the present day, is forced to confront the mother who abandoned him when he was only two years old. The novel opens when Yuki is sixteen and her father is posted back to Japan. Though she and her family have been living as outsiders in New York City, Yuki opts to stay, intoxicated by her friendship with the beautiful aspiring model Odile, the energy of the city, and her desire to become an artist. But when she becomes involved with an older man and the relationship turns destructive, Yuki’s life is unmoored. Harmless Like You is a suspenseful novel about the complexities of identity, art, adolescent friendships, and familial bonds, which asks-and ultimately answers-how does a mother desert her son?

“This debut audiobook features a unique look at characters who are simply trying to figure out who they are and how they might find some purpose and joy in life. Shifts in time and viewpoint present listening challenges, but easily identifiable characters, and clear and crisply paced performances from both narrators provide skillful guidance. Narrator Emily Woo Zeller captures the angst of young Japanese transplant Yuki, who struggles to fit into the New York City art scene and then into the suburban world of a housewife in the 1960s and ’70s. P.J. Ochlan’s portrayal of Yuki’s son, Jay, is a bit wooden initially but gains intensity and animation as family challenges cause him to mature. Buchanan’s gifts for lyrical description and nuanced character development, ably presented by Zeller and Ochlan, create an appealing audiobook.” � AudioFile 2017,