Soma Mei Sheng Frazier’s debut, OFF THE BOOKS, is a road trip novel. Each chapter is titled after a leg of a round-trip cross-country excursion. I kept thinking about how the experience of reading this book mirrored that of taking a long road trip with companions.

In the case of the protagonist, Měi, her itinerary has her starting in the San Francisco Bay Area and heading all the way across the country to Syracuse, New York. Thanks to her grandfather’s connections (some of which are questionable), Měi, a recent Ivy League dropout, has taken up offering driving services, primarily to sex workers in Oakland, where she grew up, and throughout the Bay Area, where she returned after her short-lived stint at Dartmouth.

Now, however, Měi has agreed to take on an unusual client. Henry Lee is a ghostwriter who is around her age and seems more than able to foot the bill not only for her driving services but also to put them up in a series of halfway decent hotels en route to New York. On the way, they joke about their shared Asian identity (Měi is mixed-race --- half-Chinese from her mom, half-white from her dad) and, especially, her inability or unwillingness to learn Mandarin.

"You might start OFF THE BOOKS with very little idea of the novel’s itinerary and no clue where it’s going to end. But you’re certain to enjoy the ride."

But Henry is also a bit odd. He insists on stopping frequently and requests privacy at unusual times. Most peculiar is the enormous suitcase that he carries with him in the back seat; he won’t let anyone else, not even Měi, touch it. Měi is not quite sure what the purpose of this trip is. Her experience driving for sex workers has instilled a reluctance to ask more questions than what is offered. So, although she’s willing to provide discretion, she’s also both curious and a little uneasy.

Much like taking any lengthy road trip with someone you don’t know very well, the journey --- especially the unexpected encounters and complications along the way --- does draw them to confide in one another. Similarly, the reader becomes almost another passenger in the car, as the narration --- in a third-person voice but from Měi’s point of view --- gradually reveals not only Henry’s secrets but also Měi’s. These include her regrets and questions about various family relationships, her insecurities over her own failings, as both a good Chinese American daughter and an aspiring journalist, and --- probably most painfully --- the real reasons that she declined to return to Dartmouth despite what should have been a promising start.

As for Henry’s secrets, they not only reveal his own surprising depths but also raise the stakes of the story, as they introduce a vulnerable new character (with whom Měi shares a touching bond) and an element of potential danger with international implications. If this all sounds a bit vague, that’s because part of the delight of reading this book is the element of surprise. And isn’t that the case with the best road trips?

Also like a good road trip, OFF THE BOOKS is about small moments of adventure and unexpected turns (including some detours), but it’s really about the conversations that happen both behind the wheel and in hotel hot tubs and roadside cafes. They are both intimate and global in scale, and part of what Měi discovers along the way is how these things can be interconnected and how much she has to learn about the cultures that make up part of her identity.

You will learn a lot as well but never in a didactic way. Rather, the story’s political sensibility is seamlessly integrated within its character-centered plot. You might start OFF THE BOOKS with very little idea of the novel’s itinerary and no clue where it’s going to end. But you’re certain to enjoy the ride.