Book Launch: Names Have Been Changed By Yu-Mei Balasingamchow in conversation with Shubha Sunder

Join us at Eliot Hall as we celebrate the release of Names Have Been Changed by Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, former Papercuts bookseller in conversation with Shubha Sunder! **One of Debutiful's Most Anticipated Debut Books of 2026** Catch Me If You Can meets Counterfeit in this thrilling debut novel about Ophir—not her real name—who starts a confessional podcast about her years on the run around the globe, in an unforgettable story about the costs of freedom and the inescapable pull of home Ophir’s tale begins in Singapore, where a petty crime spins out of control, estranging her from home and family. Resorting to false identities and forged passports (being mixed-race helps), she crisscrosses the globe from a Paris-themed hostess bar in Tokyo, to a bustling Chinese restaurant in London, to a snowbound mountain town in Colorado and beyond. Broadcasting from an undisclosed location, Ophir is funny, prickly, tough, and vulnerable, entrancing her listeners with an irresistible, no-holds-barred recounting of not only her crimes (plural) but also her deepest secrets and regrets. Even as she moves seamlessly across class lines and continents, she grapples with the shock of relentless dislocation, a painful reexamination of identity, and a deep yearning for home. She tries to find comfort in new lovers and ill-gotten luxury goods, but she can’t help attracting trouble, and she soon faces an unexpected, high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever. Names Have Been Changed is a stylish, fast-paced debut novel that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, it’s ultimately a story about immigration and belonging—one unlike any you’ve seen before. Yu-Mei Balasingamchow was born in Singapore and moved to Boston, where she was a bookseller at Papercuts Bookshop and where she teaches writing workshops at GrubStreet. Her short fiction has received a Pushcart Prize special mention and been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize. She has an MFA in creative writing from Boston University and has received grants from the Elizabeth George Foundation, Sewanee Writers Conference, and Singapore’s National Arts Council. Names Have Been Changed is her debut novel. Shubha Sunder is a 2025 Whiting Award winner and the author of Optional Practical Training, an immigrant novel in conversations that won the New American Voices Award and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her first book, Boomtown Girl, a short story collection set in her hometown of Bangalore, India, won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award. She currently teaches in the creative writing MFA program at UMass Boston.

Eliot Hall

Papercuts Bookshop

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Book Launch: Names Have Been Changed By Yu-Mei Balasingamchow in conversation with Shubha Sunder

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