The Phoenix Pencil Company is a multi-generational epic story of sisterhood, love, betrayal, and the ways we tell stories. It is historical magical realism within an epistolary novel of letters and journal entries across two time periods (wartime Shanghai and 2018 Massachusetts) in which college student Monica returns home to help take care of the grandmother who raised her, and who's slowly succumbing to dementia. In searching for her grandmother's lost-lost cousin so that they can reconnect, Monica stumbles upon more than she expected: a family secret, and the dangerous truth the women in her family have held close to their hearts for generations.

This was a truly beautiful book. The characters are all fully fleshed out, highly flawed, but doing their best to survive. The amount of research needed for this book is obviously vast, and I'm now determined to learn more about Chinese history, especially under Japanese occupation and the civil war that followed. The world of occupied Shanghai is vivid and yet haunting, a depiction of wartime that many have had the privilege of not facing themselves. The harsh realities--and intricate, fantastical mysteries--depicted in The Phoenix Pencil Company held my attention tightly and I am so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to read it.

So many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!