Number One Chinese Restaurant: A Novel

Li, Lillian

ISBN 10: 1250229324 / ISBN 13: 9781250229328

Published by Picador, 2019

About this Item

Very light shelfwear to edges of covers, otherwise fine. Signed by author on title page. Front cover has "Autographed Copy" sticker.

Seller Inventory # ABE-1689179821193

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Number One Chinese Restaurant: A Novel
• Publisher: Picador
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1250229324
• ISBN 13: 9781250229328
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • Women Authors/Artists

About this title

Synopsis

Named a Must-Read by TIME, Buzzfeed, The Wall Street Journal, Star Tribune, Fast Company, The Village Voice, Toronto Star, Fortune Magazine, InStyle, and O, The Oprah Magazine

"A joy to read―I couldn't get enough."
―Buzzfeed

"This novel practically thumps with heartache and sharp humor."
―Chang-rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Native Speaker

An exuberant and wise multigenerational debut novel about the complicated lives and loves of people working in everyone’s favorite Chinese restaurant.

The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go-to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations; it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades. When disaster strikes, this working family’s controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay.

Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late father’s homespun establishment for a fancier one. Jimmy’s older brother, Johnny, and Johnny’s daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a father’s absence and a teenager’s silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their thirty-year friendship into something else, even as Nan’s son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble. And when Pat and Annie, caught in a mix of youthful lust and boredom, find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.

Generous in spirit, unaffected in its intelligence, multi-voiced, poignant, and darkly funny, Number One Chinese Restaurant looks beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals to share an unforgettable story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive.

About the Author

Lillian Li is the author of Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Granta, and Travel + Leisure. She is from the DC metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.