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TWO SISTERS. ONE PAINTING. A LONG-LOST SECRET.

From the bestselling author of Banyan Moon comes a captivating, evocative story of two estranged sisters on a quest to find a painting by a forgotten Vietnamese artist that holds the truth of their family’s fractured past.

‘Beautiful . . . a kind of ghost story wound through with artistic passion, a legacy of violence, and the indelible intimacy of sisterhood’ Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

‘The most achingly beautiful novel I’ve read in a long time’ Amy Jo Burns, author of Wait For Me

Aside from the fact they are sisters, Vivi and Calla Nguyen have little in common.

Vivi, the eldest, lives an orderly and predictable life. Working as an art conservator at a museum in Chicago, she carefully preserves pieces of the past, all the while refusing to examine her own dark history.

Calla leads a much bolder, if occasionally reckless, existence. An accomplished artist with a flair for the dramatic, she is charming and intriguing to everyone she meets. She’s also a recovering addict, constantly causing Vivi to worry.

Months after the two fall out in the wake of their father’s death, Calla appears on the steps of the museum with a sketch and a letter found in their father’s belongings. The sketch is an exact copy of Blue Mirror, a striking painting by a Surrealist Vietnamese painter named K.P. Ly. In the letter, Ly writes about a mysterious lost work of art that Calla is convinced is meant for her and Vivi to find together. Intrigued yet reluctant to follow her capricious sister, Vivi must decide whether she’s willing to face or shut the door to the past.

From the ghostly Wisconsin woods to a glittering estate in the French countryside to a disintegrating ancestral home teetering on the edge of a ravine in Viet Nam, The Seekers of Deer Creek is a story of sisters, art, and the irresistible gravity of the past-how it endures across time and generations, always present even when buried.

Publisher Review

The Seekers of Deer Creek is the most achingly beautiful novel I’ve read in a long time. An emotionally intricate story of two wayward sisters fighting to claim their birthright, it’s also a seductive page-turner about art, forbidden love, identity, and longing. Thao Thai is a true virtuoso in the language of the heart, and I’d follow her anywhere. — Amy Jo Burns, author of WAIT FOR ME The Seekers of Deer Creek is a beautiful book: a kind of ghost story wound through with artistic passion, a legacy of violence, and the indelible intimacy of sisterhood. Thao Thai explores familial inheritance in a way that illuminates the inevitability of its contradictions: a crushing burden; a magical gift. — Catherine Newman, NYT best-selling author of SANDWICH and WRECK An enchanting story of sisters, secrets, and the narratives we tell ourselves to survive. With lyrical prose and moments of quiet magic, The Seekers of Deer Creek is a captivating journey toward truth. A story to be savored — Meagan Church, New York Times bestselling author of THE MAD WIFE In The Seekers of Deer Creek, Thao Thai crafts a haunting, globe-spanning tale of two estranged sisters drawn together by a missing masterpiece and the secrets their father left behind. As they follow a trail from the American Midwest to France to Vietnam, old wounds resurface and buried truths demand to be reckoned with. Lush, mysterious, and utterly absorbing, this is a stunning portrait of sisterhood you won’t be able to put down — Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of SEARCHING FOR SYLVIE LEE If I didn’t already care deeply about the cosmic forces of love and hurt within a family, and how they might drive a person, and how they might be fathomed through the painter’s medium, then Thao Thai would make me a devotee. She is a master of evocation. The Seekers of Deer Creek is a magical, wholly transcendent novel, rife with empathy and insight-at turns paralyzing and catalyzing. It’s a fever dream from which I do not wish to wake — Nathaniel Ian Miller, author of THE MEMOIRS OF STOCKHOLM SVEN and RED DOG FARM An appealing family mystery * Publishers Weekly * Thai brilliantly intertwines fear and wonder in her lyrical prose, maintaining a delicate balance that is deep and tender. Her masterful writing is restrained but piercing, allowing moments to unfold rather than rushing the story forward. * Booklist *