C.K. Chau

A whip-smart and charming debut novel that brilliantly reimagines Pride and Prejudice, set in contemporary Chinatown, exploring contemporary issues of class divides, family ties, cultural identity, and the pleasures and frustrations that come with falling in love. When Elizabeth Chen’s ever-hustling realtor mother finally sells the beloved if derelict community center down the block, the new owners don’t look like typical New York City buyers. Brendan Lee and Darcy Wong are good Chinese boys with Hong Kong money. Clean-cut and charismatic, they say they are committed to cleaning up the neighborhood. To Elizabeth, that only means one thing: Darcy is looking to give the center an uptown makeover. Elizabeth is determined to fight for community over profit, even if it means confronting the arrogant, uptight man every chance she gets. But where clever, cynical Elizabeth sees lemons, her mother sees lemonade. Eager to get Elizabeth and her other four daughters ahead in the world (and out of their crammed family apartment), Mrs. Chen takes every opportunity to keep her investors close. Closer than Elizabeth likes. The more time they spend together, the more conflicted Elizabeth feels…until a shocking betrayal forces her to reconsider everything she thought she knew about love, trust, and the kind of person Darcy Wong really is.

A Novel

Good Fortune

Jazelle H

Vincent aspired to small business ownership and daughters who wouldn't have to work with their hands; Jade set out to win the lottery. Neither achieved success. So Jade pursued a realty license, Vincent ran someone else's restaurant, and they called it an American Dream.

Their lives came with a persistent low- balance warning.

An aa could be worth thousands of words. Whining or flat, long or short, rising or falling, a musical interjection, and an all-season accessory to highlight how you might really feel.

They left their daughters to grow into their hollowed Chinese, plugging English into whatever sprang a leak, stumbling on the wrong sounds, chasing intelligibility -- but as Jade insisted, at least their English was beyond approach. No trace of an accent, no problem. A hallmark of their success. A hallmark of their loss.

The aunties will tell you -- it's the ends that justify the means, the motive, the opportunity.

For her entire life, she'd known every major expense to come with a ritual of hand-wringing, desperate pleas at the family alter, and anxiety, but they'd managed. On credit or layaway, haggled or borrowed, by the grace of financial aid, they made lemonade out of rotten fruit.

Darcy, learning to joke? Darcy, smiling? Something had gone terribly wrong. It could only be explained as some cosmic disturbance in the Force.

"It can blind you to the reality of a situation. It can keep you from seeing what needs to be fixed."

So much of the force of his personality rooted in his body, she noticed⁠—the way he carried himself, the severity of his posture, the distance of his gaze⁠—but his face betrayed that delicacy and meanness that she found common in men of a certain income bracket. Strong features and sulky in mouth.

It was the great power of the camera, reminding any and all that they might be seen. Some embraced it, some ran away from it, but everybody posed. And only the photographer got to see it all. 

That was what she loved most about it. The distance it offered, the feeling of control. 

Good Fortune quotes

Join the club