Kayla Min Andrews at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes writer KAYLA MIN ANDREWS for a discussion of her late mother's, KATHERINE MIN’s, final novel The Fetishist. She will be joined in conversation by AUBE REY LESCURE—author of River East, River West and deputy editor of Off Assignment.

About The Fetishist

On a cold, gloomy night, twenty-three-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight, there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground . . . and then nothing goes as planned.

The Fetishist is the story of three people—Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion, and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved.

An exuberant, provocative story that confronts race, complicity, visibility, and ideals of femininity, The Fetishist was written before the celebrated author’s untimely death in 2019. Startlingly prescient, as wise and powerful as it is utterly delightful, this novel cements Katherine Min’s legacy as a writer with a singular voice for our times.

Praise for The Fetishist

"Incandescent, astonishing, a miracle. I’m elated and deeply grateful this book exists." —R. O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

"The Fetishist is so reverent and so unruly, so delicate and so explosive, such a merge of chamber music with the mosh pit, so devastatingly sad and devastatingly funny and alive and generous with its abundance of life! I mourn Katherine Min, and am grateful this fiery novel of hers insisted its way out of Katherine’s laptop and into the world. Hats off to Kayla Min Andrews for clearing the path." —Susan Choi, author of Trust Exercise

"The Fetishist is lit from the very first page with a wicked, crackling, hilarious intensity. The subject is provocative, the writing is flush with elegance and intelligence. I finished this book and immediately wanted to talk about it with someone. It's a fire-starter of a novel." —Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.