The South

When Jay’s grandfather dies, his family returns south to a once-thriving farm now withered by drought and time. As his father struggles with his own disappointments and his mother holds the fraying family together, Jay is sent to work the land—where he meets Chuan, the manager’s son.

Through heavy summer heat and long days in the fields, a quiet, electric romantic connection grows between the two boys, even as the adults confront their own regrets and unspoken truths.

Tash Aw’s The South is a tender, luminous novel about inheritance, desire, and the fault lines between the lives we’re given and the ones we dream of.