Water Moon

A Filipino author based in Manila, Samantha Sotto Yambao is known for her works of fantasy and magical realism. Her titles include Before Ever After (2011), Love and Gravity (2017), A Dream of Trees (2019), The Beginning of Always (2022), and Water Moon (2025).

In all five of Yambao’s novels, she combines elements of magic and adventure to explore complex themes about the human experience. In Before Ever After, the main character, Shelley, sets out on an adventure to find her husband, Max, who she believed was dead, after “an Italian editor of American coffee table books” informs her that Max is his living grandfather (“Before Ever After.” Samantha Sotto Yambao). The novel traces her adventures through time as she “relives Max’s stories of bloody Parisian barricades, medieval Austrian kitchens, and buried Roman boathouses” (“Before Ever After”). In Love and Gravity, “a young Isaac Newton falls in love with a girl living in modern-day San Francisco” (“Love and Gravity.” Samantha Sotto Yambao). The proverbially star-crossed lovers must choose which era to live in and what they’re willing to sacrifice to be together.

In A Dream of Trees, the main character, Shiori Ametsuchi (a Bonsai artist), wakes up one morning with no recollection of her past life. She’s then thrust into a new reality where she finds herself repeatedly “walking through a mysterious door” (“A Dream of Trees.” Samantha Sotto Yambao). Each time she opens the magical door, she visits a new room and spends time with a new stranger in the last moments of their life. The unpredictable rooms that she enters lead her to question reality and truth and to seek answers to life’s most profound questions. In The Beginning of Always, the main character, Elsie Grier, almost drowns in the Seine on New Year’s Eve but then “finds herself wading through the memories of a 19th century woman who shares her face” (“The Beginning of Always.” Samantha Sotto Yambao). In Yambao’s most recent novel, Water Moon, one of the main characters, Keishin, opens the door to a popular Tokyo ramen restaurant one day and discovers that he’s in a magical pawnshop where clients can trade the choices they regret for peace of mind. In the pawnshop, he meets Hana. The two venture out on a harrowing journey to discover dark secrets about Hana’s mysterious, magical world.

No matter what fantastical world Yambao crafts, all her novels explore notions such as loneliness, forgiveness, and dreams. Her magical stories often defy the laws of physics and compel her characters into miraculous connections with each other. Elements of excitement, mystery, loss, and love complicate Yambao’s stories about young love and coming of age. Furthermore, all her novels are set in distinct locations, such as France, Japan, Italy, or the US. Her eclectic worlds lend a universality to her novels’ explorations of the human experience.

Yambao’s novels share elements with other works of magical realism or fantasy. Such works include Tales From the Cafe by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger, and What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama.