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My Dear You

Stories

Hardcover
$29.00 US
5-1/2"W x 8-1/4"H | 13 oz | 12 per carton
On sale Apr 07, 2026 | 240 Pages | 9780593803691

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From the author of New York Times bestseller Real Americans, a brilliant short story collection about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it’s so easy to be someone else

The characters in My Dear You find themselves facing extraordinary choices in scenarios that range from the everyday to the absurd: The U.S. government injects all citizens with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. God does away with humans in favor of something much better. A woman adopts a cat who conjures the ghosts of her ex-loves. A factory worker decides to befriend a sex doll she is tasked with selling.

These stories go deep beneath the surface, touching on the particular awkwardness of dating in your thirties and asking: What does it mean to be an Asian woman in America? Or an American? Or a human? Along the way, the characters stop to consider interventions from the supernatural, the earthly, the robotic, and the immortal.

Playful, profane, and yet enveloped with profound compassion for life, however you define it, My Dear You takes on dating, marriage, and the pressures of having or not having children; intimacy, memory, race, and capitalism; living, dying, and being dead. At their very core, they are tales of love in its many forms: being in love when you’re not supposed to be, or not being in love but wishing you were; failing at dating apps or finding yourself in weird but wonderful lifelong friendships; struggling in heaven to remember your loved ones.

Ranging from the sinister to the tender, these witty and expertly paced stories will have you laughing out loud one minute and reaching for your best friend the next.
“There’s a beautiful, effortless feel to these stories that makes them so highly readable (and I’m sure wasn’t effortless at all), and with it, Khong is able to sneak in abundant insights and a genuine depth that reveals itself unexpectedly. A thoroughly enjoyable collection.” —Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

“I couldn’t stop reading these sly, poignant, very funny stories about intimacy and friendship, work and death, longing and connection. Rachel Khong’s writing is so agile and fluid and charming that it can sneak up on you and knock you out.” —Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown

“Rachel Khong is one of our best observers of the human condition and isn’t afraid to take us to unreal realms in order to illuminate the very real strangeness about being alive right now, in this specific moment. In these stories, ghosts haunt toilet tanks, girls turn into animals, the dead get to choose new bodies for the afterlife, and sex dolls become friends. These fearlessly funny and smart stories are a joy.” —Rita Bullwinkel, author of Headshot

My Dear You is a collection of wise stories whose wisdom sneaks up on you, delivered as it is in the guise of a joke. If this collection is a book of jokes, the jokes are the hysterical kind. You start out laughing, then realize you’re crying, without quite understanding what’s happened. Rachel Khong: comic, sage. I loved these bonkers stories so much.” —Vauhini Vara, author of This is Salvaged: Stories

My Dear You is a garden of bravura, incandescent and explosive and compassionate all at once. Khong’s stories astound and comfort, expanding the form’s possibilities, guiding us through the familiar, and the deeply unknowable, in spectacular form. Khong is one of my favorite writers; My Dear You is one of my favorite books.” —Bryan Washington, author of Palaver

“This collection is wonderful. The stories are a little quirky and comic, but also sharp and insightful.” —Chicago Review of Books

“The 10 thought-provoking stories range from tender to sinister to funny to sad, and they won’t quickly leave readers’ minds.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Each surprising, intricate, and emotionally resonant tale underscores a storytelling talent that’s all Khong’s own. Fans of Khong’s Goodbye Vitamin (2017) and Real Americans (2024), which was a Read with Jenna pick, will adore following the author’s imagination in these shorter tales.” —Booklist (starred review)

“In these provocative stories, Khong offers well-wrought and intricate depictions of Asian American and Asian life, often with a fantastical or speculative twist. . . . There’s much to admire in this assured collection.” —Publishers Weekly

“Khong writes tales of love in its many forms: being in love, not being in love, yearning to be in love, in the throes of unexpected yet wonderful lifelong friendships, and the intimate intertwining of love and grief. Read if you’re down to be existential.” —Electric Lit

“Surreal, profound, prophetic, playful, and provocative. . . . [Khong] uses the flexibility of the short-story form to wonderful and whimsical advantage.” Kirkus (starred review)

“These stories . . . blur the lines of genre in the vein of Marie-Helene Bertino and Kevin Wilson, with ghost-conjuring cats and strange government technology alongside the deeply human questions of what it means to be alive in a world that might not love you back.” Lit Hub

“There is always a remarkable economy of language in Rachel Khong’s books. She doesn’t waste any time—or any words—getting to the point, but she doesn’t sacrifice artistry, either.” Book Riot
© Andria Lo
Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, win­ner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. Real Americans, her second novel, was a New York Times best­seller. In 2018, Khong founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. With friends, she teaches creative writing as The Dream Side. She lives in Los Angeles. View titles by Rachel Khong

About

From the author of New York Times bestseller Real Americans, a brilliant short story collection about love, life, and the anguish of becoming oneself in a time when it’s so easy to be someone else

The characters in My Dear You find themselves facing extraordinary choices in scenarios that range from the everyday to the absurd: The U.S. government injects all citizens with a drug that makes them see everyone else as members of their own race and gender. God does away with humans in favor of something much better. A woman adopts a cat who conjures the ghosts of her ex-loves. A factory worker decides to befriend a sex doll she is tasked with selling.

These stories go deep beneath the surface, touching on the particular awkwardness of dating in your thirties and asking: What does it mean to be an Asian woman in America? Or an American? Or a human? Along the way, the characters stop to consider interventions from the supernatural, the earthly, the robotic, and the immortal.

Playful, profane, and yet enveloped with profound compassion for life, however you define it, My Dear You takes on dating, marriage, and the pressures of having or not having children; intimacy, memory, race, and capitalism; living, dying, and being dead. At their very core, they are tales of love in its many forms: being in love when you’re not supposed to be, or not being in love but wishing you were; failing at dating apps or finding yourself in weird but wonderful lifelong friendships; struggling in heaven to remember your loved ones.

Ranging from the sinister to the tender, these witty and expertly paced stories will have you laughing out loud one minute and reaching for your best friend the next.

Praise

“There’s a beautiful, effortless feel to these stories that makes them so highly readable (and I’m sure wasn’t effortless at all), and with it, Khong is able to sneak in abundant insights and a genuine depth that reveals itself unexpectedly. A thoroughly enjoyable collection.” —Aimee Bender, author of The Butterfly Lampshade

“I couldn’t stop reading these sly, poignant, very funny stories about intimacy and friendship, work and death, longing and connection. Rachel Khong’s writing is so agile and fluid and charming that it can sneak up on you and knock you out.” —Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown

“Rachel Khong is one of our best observers of the human condition and isn’t afraid to take us to unreal realms in order to illuminate the very real strangeness about being alive right now, in this specific moment. In these stories, ghosts haunt toilet tanks, girls turn into animals, the dead get to choose new bodies for the afterlife, and sex dolls become friends. These fearlessly funny and smart stories are a joy.” —Rita Bullwinkel, author of Headshot

My Dear You is a collection of wise stories whose wisdom sneaks up on you, delivered as it is in the guise of a joke. If this collection is a book of jokes, the jokes are the hysterical kind. You start out laughing, then realize you’re crying, without quite understanding what’s happened. Rachel Khong: comic, sage. I loved these bonkers stories so much.” —Vauhini Vara, author of This is Salvaged: Stories

My Dear You is a garden of bravura, incandescent and explosive and compassionate all at once. Khong’s stories astound and comfort, expanding the form’s possibilities, guiding us through the familiar, and the deeply unknowable, in spectacular form. Khong is one of my favorite writers; My Dear You is one of my favorite books.” —Bryan Washington, author of Palaver

“This collection is wonderful. The stories are a little quirky and comic, but also sharp and insightful.” —Chicago Review of Books

“The 10 thought-provoking stories range from tender to sinister to funny to sad, and they won’t quickly leave readers’ minds.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“Each surprising, intricate, and emotionally resonant tale underscores a storytelling talent that’s all Khong’s own. Fans of Khong’s Goodbye Vitamin (2017) and Real Americans (2024), which was a Read with Jenna pick, will adore following the author’s imagination in these shorter tales.” —Booklist (starred review)

“In these provocative stories, Khong offers well-wrought and intricate depictions of Asian American and Asian life, often with a fantastical or speculative twist. . . . There’s much to admire in this assured collection.” —Publishers Weekly

“Khong writes tales of love in its many forms: being in love, not being in love, yearning to be in love, in the throes of unexpected yet wonderful lifelong friendships, and the intimate intertwining of love and grief. Read if you’re down to be existential.” —Electric Lit

“Surreal, profound, prophetic, playful, and provocative. . . . [Khong] uses the flexibility of the short-story form to wonderful and whimsical advantage.” Kirkus (starred review)

“These stories . . . blur the lines of genre in the vein of Marie-Helene Bertino and Kevin Wilson, with ghost-conjuring cats and strange government technology alongside the deeply human questions of what it means to be alive in a world that might not love you back.” Lit Hub

“There is always a remarkable economy of language in Rachel Khong’s books. She doesn’t waste any time—or any words—getting to the point, but she doesn’t sacrifice artistry, either.” Book Riot

Author

© Andria Lo
Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, win­ner of the California Book Award for First Fiction. Real Americans, her second novel, was a New York Times best­seller. In 2018, Khong founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. With friends, she teaches creative writing as The Dream Side. She lives in Los Angeles. View titles by Rachel Khong