Flashlight

Susan Choi’s Trust Exercise, a story of power and perspective set at a 1980s performing arts high school, won the National Book Award in 2019 for the way it undid and upended narrative expectations. We have high hopes for Flashlight, and we know not to expect a straightforward structure. Beginning with a tragedy befalling a father and his 10-year-old daughter, the book branches out into different family members’ perspectives and peers into Korean, American and Japanese history.