A firstgeneration immigrant from China marries an exiled musician whose unfulfilled desires nearly destroy their children, in the title story in a collection of tales about the trials and tribulations of Asian Americans. Reprint.

Hunger

Literature & Fiction

Chang, Lan Samantha

Literary

Penguin??Books

From the acclaimed Chinese-American author, a story of two sisters and the deadly rivalry that comes to separate them. Beginning in 1925, it tells the story not only of one family, but of China across the turbulent years of the 20th century, through war, revolution, occupation and exile. When their mother dies, Junan and her little sister Yinan make a pact to stay together forever. They grow up in Hangzhou, in their wealthy father's house, Junan becoming every year more beautiful, Yinan shyer and more withdrawn. One night, some men come to the house to play paigao, among them a young soldier called Li Ang. When the girls' father loses once more at the tiles, he pays his gambling debt with the hand of his older daughter. So the beautiful Junan becomes the bride of the ambitious and handsome Li Ang. Junan, exquisite and cold, makes the mistake she had always feared making, the mistake that disgraced her mother and led to her early death. Quite simply, she falls in love with her husband. When the Japanese invade, Li Ang is sent to protect the wartime capital. Unable to join him herself and tormented by love and jealousy, Junan makes her second mistake.She sends to him the one woman she can trust, her quiet and dreamy younger sister Yinan. As delicately nuanced and coloured as a painting, Lan Samantha Chang's first novel tells a classic story of desire and love.

Inheritance

Genre Fiction

W.W.Norton

Hunger: a Novella and Stories

Not since Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Tan has a fiction writer explored with such powerful intensity the experience of being Asian American. The characters who inhabit this extraordinary fictional debut are caught between the burden of their past history and the fragility of their unchartered future. Hunger illuminates how first-generation immigrants from China, culturally and emotionally uprooted from their homeland, mistrust connection even as they hunger for attachment ― and how the past affects and shapes their children. In luminous prose, these moving stories of love and loss explore the profound and painful ties between husband and wife, parent and child, sister and sister. The stunning title novella is told by a woman whose love for an exiled musician compels her into a tragic marriage in which her husband's unfulfilled desires nearly destroy their children. In other stories, a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father's death. Lan Samantha Chang weaves the forces of war and magic, food and desire, ghosts and family, into haunting tales. Again and again, Chang asks the question: is love not a kind of burden, stifling and terrifying in the choices and responsibilities it forces on us? And yet we yearn for it, define ourselves by our experience of it, cannot live without it.

Hunger: A Novella and Stories

United States

W.W.Norton&Company

Making a pact to stay together after the suicide of their mother, Junan and her sister, Yinan, find their vow challenged when Junan is separated from her husband by the Japanese invasion of China and decides to send Yinan after him to the wartime capital. 50,000 first printing.

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

A haunting story of art, ambition, love, and friendship by a writer of elegant, exacting prose. At the renowned writing school in Bonneville, every student is simultaneously terrified of and attracted to the charismatic and mysterious poet and professor Miranda Sturgis, whose high standards for art are both intimidating and inspiring. As two students, Roman and Bernard, strive to win her admiration, the lines between mentorship, friendship, and love are blurred. Roman's star rises early, and his first book wins a prestigious prize. Meanwhile, Bernard labors for years over a single poem. Secrets of the past begin to surface, friendships are broken, and Miranda continues to cast a shadow over their lives. What is the hidden burden of early promise? What are the personal costs of a life devoted to the pursuit of art? All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a brilliant evocation of the demands of ambition and vocation, personal loyalty and poetic truth.

All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost: A Novel

Spanning seven decades and set in China and America against a backdrop of political chaos and social upheaval, this arresting debut novel tells a timeless story of familial devotion undermined by deceit and passion and rebuilt by memory.
In 1931, abandoned after their mother's suicide, the young Junan and her sister, Yinan, make a pact never to leave each other. The two girls are inseparable―until Junan enters into an arranged marriage and finds herself falling in love with her soldier husband. When the Japanese invade China, Junan and her husband are separated. Unable to follow him to the wartime capital, Junan makes the fateful decision to send her sister after him. Inheritance traces the echo of betrayal through generations and explores the elusive nature of trust.

Inheritance: A Novel

“Spare and haunting tales that ask ordinary questions about that extraordinary emotion: love.”―Chicago Tribune The novella and five stories that make up this collection reveal the lives of immigrant families haunted by lost loves: a ghost seduces a young girl into a flooded river; a mother commands a daughter to avenge her father’s death; and in the title novella, a woman speaks from beyond the grave about her tragic marriage to an exiled musician whose own disappointments nearly destroyed their two daughters.

Product Description 
An acclaimed storyteller returns with “a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery” that explores “family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American Dream” (Jean Kwok). 
The residents of Haven, Wisconsin, have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant’s delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, content to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. Whether or not Big Leo Chao is honest, or his wife, Winnie, is happy, their food tastes good and their three sons earned scholarships to respectable colleges. But when the brothers reunite in Haven, the Chao family’s secrets and simmering resentments erupt at last. 
Before long, brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo is found dead―presumed murdered―and his sons find they’ve drawn the exacting gaze of the entire town. The ensuing trial brings to light potential motives for all three brothers: Dagou, the restaurant’s reckless head chef; Ming, financially successful but personally tortured; and the youngest, gentle but lost college student James. As the spotlight on the brothers tightens―and the family dog meets an unexpected fate―Dagou, Ming, and James must reckon with the legacy of their father’s outsized appetites and their own future survival. 
Brimming with heartbreak, comedy, and suspense, The Family Chao offers a kaleidoscopic, highly entertaining portrait of a Chinese American family grappling with the dark undercurrents of a seemingly pleasant small town. 
 Review 
"An ingenious and cunning reboot of Dostoyevsky’s 
The Brothers Karamazov. The harrowing and humorous family drama is wrapped in a murder mystery... In this timely, trenchant, and thoroughly entertaining book, an immigrant family’s dreams are paid for in blood. For Chang, this marks a triumphant return." 
 ― 
Publishers Weekly (starred review)\n"Family drama, murder mystery, love story, 
The Family Chao is an oftentimes funny and sometimes sad portrait of a Chinese American family who runs that most ubiquitous of institutions: the Chinese restaurant. With nuance and slyness, wit and empathy, Chang turns the desires and deceits of one unhappy family into a moving and compelling saga of that classic American illness: ambition." 
 ― 
Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Committed\n"Lan Samantha Chang’s 
The Family Chao is a modern-day Brothers Karamazov, a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery that leads the reader into a hall of mirrors, reflecting with its kaleidoscopic vision themes like family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American Dream. Devastating and searing, laugh-out-loud funny and profound, Chang’s latest novel is infused with beautiful, evocative writing that will quicken your heart and mind. A masterpiece." 
 ― 
Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee\n" 
The Family Chao is riveting, delicious, full of love and danger, an intricate look at the so-called American Dream and one small-town American family trying and failing to save itself. Lan Samantha Chang’s characters are unforgettable: dear, maddening, funny, cruel. The Family Chao is an up-to-the-minute look at what it means to be accused and visible in America, and also an old-fashioned page-turner. A book to stay up late reading, and then to dream about." 
 ― 
Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Souvenir Museum\n"I loved Lan Samantha Chang’s 
The Family Chao, at once a brilliant reimagining of Dostoevsky and a wholly original and gripping story about the passions, rivalries, and searing pressures that roil a singular immigrant family." 
 ― 
Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions\n"In this symphonic novel, Lan Samantha Chang gives us a multitude of souls lost and found: the gregarious are isolated, the ruthless are hunted, the voiceless scheme with hidden power, the innocent suffer from murderous desire. This is one of the finest and most ambitious novels about America I’ve read in recent years." 
 ― 
Yiyun Li, author of Must I Go\n"A Dickensian drama of family conflicts and intrigues; an

The Family Chao: A Novel

A timeless story of familial devotion undermined by deceit and passion and rebuilt by memory. In 1931, abandoned after their mother's suicide, the young Junan and her sister, Yinan, make a pact never to leave each other. The two girls are inseparable―until Junan enters into an arranged marriage and finds herself falling in love with her soldier husband. When the Japanese invade China, Junan and her husband are separated. Unable to follow him to the wartime capital, Junan makes the fateful decision to send her sister after him. Inheritance traces the echo of betrayal through generations and explores the elusive nature of trust. Reading group guide included.

Contemporary

Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group)

Review\n"[Chang] lives and writes to push the boundaries of her craft and her world... Her new novel is a genre bender: a murder story whose prose sings and snickers and soars as engagingly as Chang’s literary fiction." 
― Meredith Maran, Washington Post\n"The Family Chao is a riveting character-driven novel that delves beautifully into human psychology; Dostoevsky himself would surely approve." 
― Ilana Masad, NPR\n"A playful literary romp with a serious heart. Ostensibly it's a murder mystery...but it’s also an exploration of genre, of literary types and stereotypes, and the impact of these types on the hopes and dreams of its characters... The action soars... Chang’s narrative [is] operatic and subversive." 
― May-Lee Chai, Minneapolis Star Tribune\n"A hilarious mystery that's also a searing take on assimilation and the American dream." 
― People Magazine\n"[Chang] turns the tired truism about every town having a Chinese restaurant on its head... Beautifully executed." 
― Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times\n"[A] sizzling...bravely unsentimental murder mystery about a Chinese American family in small-town Wisconsin." 
― Richard Lipez, Washington Post\n"Family drama, murder mystery, love story, The Family Chao is an oftentimes funny and sometimes sad portrait of a Chinese American family who runs that most ubiquitous of institutions: the Chinese restaurant. With nuance and slyness, wit and empathy, Chang turns the desires and deceits of one unhappy family into a moving and compelling saga of that classic American illness: ambition." 
― Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Committed\n"Lan Samantha Chang’s The Family Chao is a modern-day Brothers Karamazov, a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery that leads the reader into a hall of mirrors, reflecting with its kaleidoscopic vision themes like family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American Dream. Devastating and searing, laugh-out-loud funny and profound, Chang’s latest novel is infused with beautiful, evocative writing that will quicken your heart and mind. A masterpiece." 
― Jean Kwok, author of Searching for Sylvie Lee\n"Funny, thought-provoking and paced like a thriller, The Family Chao radically redefines the immigrant novel while balancing entertainment and delight." 
― BookPage (starred review)\n"An ingenious and cunning reboot of Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The harrowing and humorous family drama is wrapped in a murder mystery... In this timely, trenchant, and thoroughly entertaining book, an immigrant family’s dreams are paid for in blood. For Chang, this marks a triumphant return." 
― Publishers Weekly (starred review)\n"The story culminates in a trial that becomes a stage for broader debates over obligation, morality, and family. But Chang is excellent at exploring this at a more intimate level as well. A later plot twist deepens the tension and concludes a story that smartly offers only gray areas in response to society’s demands for simplicity and assurance. A disruptive, sardonic take on the assimilation story." 
― Kirkus Reviews (starred review)\n"The Family Chao is riveting, delicious, full of love and danger, an intricate look at the so-called American Dream and one small-town American family trying and failing to save itself. Lan Samantha Chang’s characters are unforgettable: dear, maddening, funny, cruel. The Family Chao is an up-to-the-minute look at what it means to be accused and visible in America, and also an old-fashioned page-turner. A book to stay up late reading, and then to dream about." 
― Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Souvenir Museum\n"I loved Lan Samantha Chang’s The Family Chao, at once a brilliant reimagining of Dostoevsky and a wholly original and gripping story about the passions, rivalries, and searing pressures that roil a singular immigrant family." 
― Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions\n"In this symphonic novel, Lan Samantha Chang gives us a multitude of souls lost and found: the gregarious are isolated, the ruthless are

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chang, Lan Samantha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Chang, Lan Samantha

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chang, Lan Samantha. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Hunger

Inheritance

Hunger: A Novella and Stories

Inheritance

All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost: A Novel

Inheritance: A Novel

Hunger: A Novella and Stories

The Family Chao: A Novel

Inheritance

The Family Chao: A Novel