The Phoenix Pencil Company

In this dazzling debut novel,a hidden and nearly forgotten magic–of Reforging pencilsbringing the memories they contain back to life–holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmotherand to mend long-lost connections across time and space. Monica Tsai spends most days on her computerjournaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluseshe’s always struggled to make friends andas a college freshmanfinds herself escaping into a digital worldcounting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their ninetiesand Monica worries about them constantly–especially her grandmotherYunwho survived two wars in China before coming to the Statesand whose memory has begun to fade. Though Yun rarely speaks of her pastMonica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One daythe very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young womanwhose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghaiworking at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their doorYun and her cousinMenglearn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secretthey are forced into a life of espionagebetraying other people’s stories to survive. Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A Tale for the Time Being with the upliftingemotional magic of The Midnight LibraryAllison King’s stunning debut novel asks: who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy.