Flashlight by Susan Choi is a powerful and atmospheric literary novel about family, loss, memory, identity, and the secrets that shape our lives. Blending mystery with an emotionally rich exploration of the human experience, the novel follows a daughter trying to understand what truly happened to her father.

One summer evening, ten-year-old Louisa walks along a breakwater with her father, Serk, while their family is staying in a coastal town in Japan. Hours later, Louisa wakes alone on the beach, soaked from the sea. Her father has disappeared and is presumed drowned.

The sudden loss shatters Louisa’s family. Returning to the United States with her American mother, Louisa carries the unanswered questions of that night with her. As time passes, Serk’s disappearance continues to echo through her life, and the mystery surrounding what happened slowly begins to emerge.

Moving across time and place, Flashlight examines how a childhood tragedy can influence identity, relationships, and memory long into adulthood. It asks how well we truly know the people closest to us—and how much of the past can remain hidden until we are ready to confront it.