About the Book: A searing debut novel of envy, longing, and regret across three lives and two countries that asks how far we’ll go for a friendship, a romance, a dream.
Ye Lian is thriving in Beijing. She has a well-paid job, a nice boyfriend, and plans to marry and move into a luxury high-rise apartment. She’s wanting for nothing–until her childhood best friend, Luo Wenyu, comes whirling back into her life after a decade in California with seemingly everything–a successful career as an influencer, a millionaire American fiancé, and a bespoke mansion in the Beijing suburbs–throwing Lian’s own reliable choices into high relief. As the two women rekindle their friendship, Wenyu reveals a shocking secret about a past love that pushes Lian to question her own relationship. A few neighborhoods away, aging architect Song Chen is forced to confront his own past and the dissolution of his marriage as he’s tasked with building Wenyu’s dream home. And when the dark side of Wenyu’s enviable life emerges and threatens everything Lian and Wenyu have built for themselves, they must make a choice between the stable known and the frightening unknown that may have devastating and unexpected consequences.
About the Author: CLAIRE JIA is a writer from the Chicago suburbs. She has written on TV shows such as Zombies: The Reanimated Series, Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, Fresh Off the Boat, and Gangsters of Shanghai. She co-wrote the 2024 Peabody Award-winning video game We Are OFK. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Reductress, The Establishment, The Rumpus, and more. Her parents are from Beijing, and there’s nothing she loves more than haggling for stationary in a chaotic Beijing marketplace. She peaked at age sixteen, when she became the All-State Illinois Shotokan Karate Club Kihon Green Belt Champion. Today she lives in Los Angeles with her friends.
About the Writer in Conversation: Willa Zhang is a writer from the suburbs of Los Angeles. Her essays have appeared in The Southern Review, The Hopkins Review, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She completed her MFA in nonfiction at the University of Montana, where she was the recipient of a Truman Capote Scholarship. She lives in Missoula, Montana and misses her best friend Claire.
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