A New York Times Editors’ Choice
One of TIME’s 100 Must-Read Books of 2025
For readers of Elif Batuman and Sally Rooney, a beguiling debut novel about finding oneself after heartbreak.
After suffering her first big heartbreak two years earlier, Penelope Lin has built a quiet life with no romantic entanglements. She spends her days cataloging a museum’s vast collection of Qing Dynasty bound-foot shoes and in the comfortable company of close friends. One day, she happens to meet Hoang, who confesses to releasing mice from the cancer research lab where he works. Hoang’s openness catches Penelope off guard; from then on, she finds her carefully constructed life slowly start to unravel. Told in Penelope’s witty, vulnerable, and thoroughly endearing voice, Gingko Season captures three seasons of reawakening, challenges, and transformation.
This wise and tenderhearted novel explores the nature of our deepest friendships as seriously as it does the dizzying terror and thrill of falling in love, and the complications of trying to live a life that matches your ideals.
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Praise for Gingko Season
“Superb … Some novels announce themselves with virtuosic plotting or language, headline-worthy conceits, Big Ideas. This is not one of them, and it’s better for it.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“There are many debut novels about young people finding love and seeking purpose, but few are as perceptive about the connection between those pursuits as Naomi Xu Elegant’s ruminative Gingko Season … startlingly profound.”
—Time
“Witty and delightful.”
—People
“Hypnotic … a charming tale of a young woman’s blossoming.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Beautifully wrought … Elegant writes long, rhythmic, fluid sentences. She and her protagonist are tuned into the five senses, making the book’s descriptive paragraphs a pleasure to read.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Observant and conscientious prose … At the heart of this exposé is love itself: How to separate the feeling from the idea? The possibility of falling in love from the reality of being in love? A past love from a future one? Far from melodramatic, Gingko Season powerfully explores love’s different facets while retaining a type of vulnerability that inspires intellectual reflection … Xu Elegant’s story embraces diasporas and their shaping of identity with the same sophisticated, careful touch.”
—Booklist
“The American expat-in-Asia novel has been done so many times it’s practically its own genre, but the inverse is almost unheard of—until now. Naomi Xu Elegant’s debut novel, Gingko Season, is a witty, humorous and clever story of twenty-five-year-old Penelope Lin, an expat from Beijing who navigates adulthood alongside a diverse cast of friends.”
—Asian Review of Books
“A stunning debut that immerses readers in a vibrant, layered world of introspection and discovery. Following Penelope as she navigates love, identity, and the complexities of city life, the novel masterfully balances poignant observations on relationships with moments of quiet beauty. Xu Elegant’s lyrical prose captures the rhythms of daily life, while also exploring deeper themes of belonging and cultural heritage. This is a deeply moving, thought-provoking read that will resonate with anyone who’s ever felt adrift and sought meaning in the everyday.”
—Weike Wang, author of Joan Is Okay and Chemistry
“A deeply funny portrayal of young adulthood’s most classic anxieties. Naomi Xu Elegant nails the earnest confusion of one’s mid-twenties as told through the modern parlance of situationships, ethical altruism, and diasporic angst. This is a novel interested in dissecting the feeling of feelings—and wondering aloud about the grace of living a so-called small life.”
—Delia Cai, author of Central Places
“Exquisitely written and deeply felt. Suffused with a gentle, ever-precise sense of humor, Gingko Season is a resonant and tender portrayal of the complexities of connection and attachment. [It] perfectly captures the loneliness and hope of youth, and the delightfully disorienting sensation of becoming unmoored in love.”
—Gina Chung, author of Sea Change and Green Frog
“An atmospheric wonder of a novel that’s as enchanting as it is wise. I loved wandering the halls of narrator Penelope’s rich interior, which is conveyed in Elegant’s inimitable lyricism. Like the eclipse that heralds a season of transformation, meditation, and self-discovery for Penelope, Gingko Season is an immersive book that announces Elegant as one of my new favorite writers.”
—Megan Kamalei Kakimoto, author of Every Drop Is a Man’s Nightmare
Contact
Agent: Iwalani Kim, ikim@sjga.com
Publicist: Gina Savoy, gsavoy@wwnorton.com
Naomi Xu Elegant 