INTRODUCED BY Jessamine Chan author of the novel The School for Good Mothers, published by Simon & Schuster in 2022
WHEN I first read Jiaming Tang’s stunning debut novel last summer, I instantly felt sure it would become part of the canon of queer literature, Asian American literature, literature period. Having met when Jiaming worked on the editorial team at Marysue Rucci Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and become good friends IRL—we joke that I’m his “book auntie”—I suspected I’d enjoy his novel, but I had no idea it would become one of my all-time favorites.
Set in China and New York, is an epic love story between closeted gay men in rural Fuzhou who meet and falltheir wives. Spanning decades and effortlessly leaping between past and present, Tang’s debut offers readers a tale of friendship and survival, a tribute to New York City’s China-town, and a rare and urgent portrait of Chinese America that celebrates the lives of factory workers, laborers, prep cooks, nail technicians—people often rendered invisible in both life and art. Rereading it now, what comes through even more is the book’s joy and tenderness and romance. The characters’ willingness to dream and search for beauty even in the most desperate circumstances. The wicked humor of the gossipy omniscient narrator. The confidence of Tang’s prose. I’ve spent the past year telling everyone I know about , and I couldn’t be more thrilled to introduce Jiaming Tang here.
