After decades of poverty, Tang Yitian finally made it as a mathematics assistant professor in the States. One day, he receives a phone call from his mother in China about his dad's disappearance from the rural village Yitian grew up in. He promises to go home and help with the search despite being estranged from his family for 15 years. He enlists his childhood friend Tian Hanwen to navigate the city that now seems alien to him. Together, Yitian and Hanwen confront their past — aftermaths of the Cultural Revolution, their old lives in a farming village, and the pursuit of knowledge. The old friends must now make difficult decisions to either make peace with their past actions or risk losing everything to start anew.

Set in the backdrops of the post-Cultural Revolution China, A Map for the Missing is an ambitious debut that investigates the impacts of the ever-changing policies after Mao's death, what it means for the city dwellers and rural farmers, and the long-lasting effects on broken families. The juxtaposition between Yitian, born in a farming family who wishes nothing but to pursue knowledge, and Hanwen, a girl sent down from Shanghai who studies to meet her mother's expectations, is brilliantly written. Family tragedy, loss, grief, and forgiveness are also interwoven into the story with beautiful prose; I resonate with so many different themes in the book. A Map for the Missing is a superb examination of the sacrifices we make to pursue our dreams and a moving encouragement to make peace with those decisions.