The Memory Museum: Stories

by M Lin

An expansive debut collection exploring the complex lives of women in China and the Chinese diaspora

Stretching from the present day to the near future, from China to America and beyond, M Lin’s piercing and melodious debut captures the spirit of China’s One-Child Generation as its characters navigate homes and cultures, hopes and contradictions, survival and resistance. These frank, tender, and playful stories offer profound insight into the ambivalence of migration, the perverse ways race and class can operate, and what it means to be Chinese today.

The collection begins with “Scenes from Childhood,” in which a lonely, elderly woman in a dystopian reality remembers her grandfather’s village. In “Magic, or Something Less Assuring,” a politically divided couple goes on a divorce honeymoon in Morocco. “You Won’t Read This in the News” features four migrant workers during one night of petty theft and connection. In “Tough Egg,” a filmmaker thwarted by censorship untangles her fraught relationship to motherhood. Other stories portray a photographer reuniting with her first love in Beijing; the historic White Paper protests that ended the zero-COVID policy; and generations into the future, a newly instated Memory Museum where two sensory architects share their vision for a utopian world.

With daring political and creative commitment, The Memory Museum brims with joy even as Lin exposes the knife’s edge between powerlessness and agency, pain and intimacy, our memories and our futures.

Genres: Short Stories, China, Fiction, Short Story Collection, Asian Literature, Aapi

272 pages, Paperback

Published April 21, 2026

About the author

M Lin is a Chinese writer and translator living in the US. Born and raised in Beijing, she writes in English as her second language. Her debut short story collection, The Memory Museum, is published by Graywolf Press in April 2026, including stories that have appeared in Ploughshares, Electric Literature, Swamp Pink, Joyland, Epiphany, and Fence. Her nonfiction and translations can be read in The New York Times, Off Assignment, Words Without Borders, The Margins, and elsewhere. 

IG: @the_memory_museum

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M Lin是生长于北京的英文写作者和译者，现居纽约。她的首部短篇小说集《记忆博物馆》于2026年4月由Graywolf Press出版。

Reviews

[Thomas]

Some interesting stories here about China and the Chinese diaspora. I liked how M Lin carries a lot of complexity in these stories, topics spanning from family to romantic relationships to political activism and its consequences. She doesn’t present one singular narrative or stereotype about what it means to be Chinese. Of the stories, my favorite was “Yulan,” which included themes of grief, relationships, and time moving forward despite it all – emotionally rich, bittersweet vibes, my favorite.

That said, I felt like a lot of these stories suffered from what I commonly experience with short story collections in general, a feeling of incompleteness or the characters just not being fully fleshed out. That said, I appreciated M Lin’s efforts with this one and can see why other readers have enjoyed this collection.

[可欣]

the best, and most technically well-written short story collection i've read so far this year... ive never, ever imagined id see a book that so intimately and honestly reflects my life, my conversations, my thoughts and feelings in this world. you think you get used to the constant sense of displacement you feel in both china and the US, that no one will truly understand parts of your life that are important to you, the memories of your childhood, and suddenly you see yourself in these pages. you go home every year a different person, and yet people who have stayed remember you as the one who has never left. the yulan trees smell the same as in your memory, and the memories bring you to tears. thank you m lin for writing this book; it's so close and dear to me.

[bookcookery]

While I enjoyed several stories in this loosely thematically linked collection, especially those set during the pandemic, some pieces were so brief they felt more like vignettes. These shorter stories lacked the distinctive insight to stand on their own, and the collection would have benefited from either fewer entries or more fully developed ones. The futuristic framing stories, in particular, were underdeveloped, with insufficient worldbuilding to support their speculative premises, and added little overall. They felt like a gimmick aimed at science fiction readers, and the collection would have been stronger without them, allowing more space to delve into Lin's exploration of the malleability and unreliability of memory. But overall, I enjoyed Lin's voice and areas of focus and will be keeping an eye out for future work.

Thanks to Graywolf Press and NetGalley for the advance reading copy.

[nathaniel]

brilliant and inspiring. several of the stories pay homage to cinema, while others draw from that tricky generational wellspring of collective chinese diasporic memories—but lin manages this with grace and skill and tasteful sentimentality. i cried a few times throughout this collection, although i was also high whenever tears fell. lin has a great command over tone. she has a deft touch with cruelties, subtly bringing forth their pains. and she has an even defter touch with kindness, how such a small thing can be so powerful and disarming. the only thing i couldn’t fully appreciate is the political stance toward china—at times the explorations felt like they were missing key points for why china is the china it is now. (or, as one character astutely describes it, why china, the chinese people, the chinese government, and the ccp are four different things.) but political semantics aside, a truly wondrous short story collection. excited to read more of lin’s work. and it’s so heartening to see excellent chinese american fiction published this year!!!

[Theresa]

M Lin gifts us a collection of refreshingly original stories, written with sophistication.

She also achieves what few writers who don't use punctuation for dialogue accomplish: Her writing is coherent without the punctuation. Their absentents do NOT interfere with the story. The reader is not left to tediously decipher who is speaking, and is left to, instead, focus on the content.

The Memory Museum was a joy to read.

[Emi]

Writing a piece about M Lin and this collection of stories!

[Elena L.]

[ 4.5/5 stars ]

THE MEMORY MUSEUM is a collection of stories that center around the lives of women in China and the Chinese diaspora. With polished prose, the stories are expansive, incorporating from the meaning of home, displacement, class, migration, grief, death to marriage, which I think it is a refreshing combination of timely themes that translate the toughness of life yet not entirely devoid of some romantic touch.

Through vignettes of satisfying length, each story brings its own relevance to be patiently savored. In 'Scenes from childhood'- experiences of a village girl who returns from the big city - it is about forgetting, surrendering our memories amidst the transition between tradition and modernity and intimately, it is an exchange of solace that highlights the power of memories which last through time and space. This story evoked my own sweet childhood memories from the precious time spent with my grandma at the farm in Taiwan. An emotional favorite. "our memories of childhood are the clearest."

In 'Magic, or something less assuring' - views from a woman after she finds out the brain tumor - Lin examines the complexity of belonging, frugality, marriage and America x China, rendering a unique energy amidst struggles and the way the magic lies in the simplicity of every second. In 'Lucy', Lin provides insightful takes on career, marriage and censorship, branching into politics which rage and urgency feel contagious. Despite not being my favorite, the titular story comes full circle, inviting one back to the poignancy and nostalgia of memories and music.

MEMORY is a visionary ode to what it means to be Chinese today. I thought it was an impressive and bold debut collection.

[ I received an ARC from the publisher - Graywolf press . All opinions are my own ]

[oliver]

beautiful collection

[Ellen]

So exciting to find a new voice in fiction about China & Chinese diaspora !! These stories were so loving, and god bless, class conscious. Lots of fiction I’ve read about China tends to be flattening or tell a very simple cliché of an “immigrant narrative,” while M Lin draws characters from all walks of life, of different classes and provinces and life trajectories dealing with the shifting realities of modern capitalist China.

[Hannah Moenyan]

I rarely read short stories, and when I do pick up a collection it’s usually just to read one of the stories, which was my original intention with this book. But somehow it’s sucked me in. I didn’t read them in order, but did end up reading all the stories in a matter of just a few days. M Lin is clearly a very talented writer and I look forward to reading any future work she publishes. But what I loved most about this collection is how much I was able to identify with the characters, as someone who is also a product of 90’s China and straddles the line between China and the US — never quite Chinese enough for China nor American enough to feel fully at home here either. It’s rare to find stories written in English that also incorporate Chinese words and phrases here and there using the actual characters. It felt like the perfect literary technique to enhance the in-between-ness that so many of the characters in the stories experienced. I loved that the stories are both super grounded in reality and at the same time suggest a sense of imagination of how things could be. The final story, which shares a name with the collection, is especially touching and hopeful. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who grew up in China and/or navigates cross-cultural boundaries, as well as anyone interested in understanding life in modern China, are anyone who just likes a good short story.

[Jamie]

I really enjoyed this collection of stories describing life in China in both the past and present. My favorite story was “Tough Egg” about motherhood, familial expectations, reproductive technology and taboos.

Some of the stories were strong and some were interesting ideas that had solid character studies but left me a little unsatisfied. A couple of the stories touch on life in China during the zero-COVID days and strict lockdowns of 2020—either by having characters argue about the issue or by describing life in some cities during that time. It was an interesting perspective to consider as an American who lived during very minimal lockdowns for a relatively short amount of time. It’s a very contentious topic and I think this collection captured some of that emotion but didn’t really leave me with much to chew on.

I also liked how these short stories touched on poverty, industrialization, life abroad, censorship, and authoritarianism. It was a very interesting collection of short stories and I appreciated having the opportunity to read it.

[Lyndsey]

in the debut short story collection THE MEMORY MUSEUM, a pair of thieves keeps adopting the misfits they set out to rob, a couple on the brink of divorce embarks on a very last trip to morocco together, a woman lives in the shadow of her asymptomatic brain tumor. a "memory museum" allows you to visit your most treasured (or traumatic) memories, as well as the collective memories that make up a nation's forgotten history. stories are told from both china and america, and capture the complexities of people living between two cultures. i was especially gripped by the glimpses into china's zero-COVID policy, as i really wasn't fully aware of how devastating the lockdowns were, and the power of the protests that followed.

these stories were insightful, emotionally poignant at times, and completely original. i was blown away again and again by the prose, when a particularly striking turn of phrase would have me reading the same line over and over again.

[Edie Lee]

“The Memory Museum” will probably land a place on my 10 best books of the year list. This wonderful compilation of short stories made me wish I could rate it with six stars

I found every entry well written, unpredictable and wholly original. They all featured a Chinese woman as protagonist. In many cases (but not all) the heroine emigrated from China to another part of the world, the majority going to America (as did the author). The first and the last of the stories could be categorized as science fiction. Despite any of these similarities, each tale was unique

Every story in some way moved me. Many were dark or sad. Occasionally they uplifted. The last, from which the book derived its name, was particularly thought provoking.

Needless to say, it never bored. There was not a single rotton apple in the bunch.

[Vivek Raman]

I really loved this book. Reminds me of unaccustomed earth which I recently read, but actually explores some deeper class/political/gender commentary that I think was really poignant. I especially loved the chapter with commentary on class - the accountants relationship with the masseur, and the chapter that explored the relationships between the four strangers who were all experiencing poverty but found community with each other

[Kai]

Great debut featuring lots of stories on the edge of diaspora between China and US. It's fiction, but much of it seems to draw on observed experiences and be fairly realistic (with the exception of the final story). Excited to see what sort of stories come next!

Also got to hear M answer Qs about the book and she's great at talking about the work in an engaging way that dives deeper than the questions (which is not always a skill writers have).

[Kyle Luo]

This debut of M Lin is incredible! Come see inside Pittsburgh massage-parlors, sweet high-school reunions at karaoke, on the streets of Kunshan (where you might get robbed by teenagers) and even futuristic memory-storing museums. These stories collectively are the memory of a generation—those with Chinese and American identities “living between languages”. This is a tender vision of family, place, and the future after COVID.

[Cheryl Ma]

I went to an author reading event and she read this and it was so captivating I had to get the whole thing! I really really loved like 80% of the stories but there were a few that weren’t totally for me. A lot to learn and a lot to relate to tho

[Jenny]

Loved this collection. The insights here were more Chinese than first gen and I feel like someone who came to the States as a teenager or later would probably find it a closer reflection. Highly recommend

[angela]

imagine having madeleine thien and tony tulathimutte as ur teachers 😵‍💫

[Rhiannon Cornelly]

Wow… fuck !!!!!!!!!!!!!!