Kathy Wang – författare

“A globe-trotting, whirlwind, tragi-comic family saga that wrings tears from absurdity and laughter from loss.  A joy to read from start to finish.”   — Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize

The Nest meets Crazy Rich Asians in this sharp comedic novel about a Chinese-American family''s attempts (or not) to fulfill its dying patriarch''s final bequest.

Some of us are more equal than others....

Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For years, Stanley has claimed that he’s worth a small fortune. But the time is now coming when the details of his estate will finally be revealed, and Stanley’s family is nervous.

For his son Fred, the inheritance Stanley has long alluded to would soothe the pain caused by years of professional disappointment. By now, the Harvard Business School graduate had expected to be a financial tech god – not a minor investor at a middling corporate firm, where he isn’t even allowed to fly business class.

Stanley’s daughter, Kate, is a middle manager with one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious tech companies. She manages the capricious demands of her world-famous boss and the needs of her two young children all while supporting her would-be entrepreneur husband (just until his startup gets off the ground, which will surely be soon). But lately, Kate has been sensing something amiss; just because you say you have it all, it doesn’t mean that you actually do.   

Stanley’s second wife, Mary Zhu, twenty-eight years his junior, has devoted herself to making her husband comfortable in every way—rubbing his feet, cooking his favorite dishes, massaging his ego.  But lately, her commitment has waned; caring for a dying old man is far more difficult than she expected.

Linda Liang, Stanley’s first wife, knows her ex better than anyone. She worked hard for decades to ensure their financial security, and is determined to see her children get their due. Single for nearly a decade, she might finally be ready for some romantic companionship. But where does a seventy-two year old Chinese woman in California go to find an appropriate boyfriend?

As Stanley’s death approaches, the Huangs are faced with unexpected challenges that upend them and eventually lead them to discover what they most value. A compelling tale of cultural expectations, career ambitions and our relationships with the people who know us best, Family Trust skewers the ambition and desires that drive Silicon Valley and draws a sharply loving portrait of modern American family life.

“The Silicon Valley spy novel we’ve all been waiting for, with a side order of biting satire and furious feminism” (Crimereads).

“John le Carré filtered through Tom Wolfe.” —The Millions

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * A Best Book of Summer: Entertainment Weekly,New York Post, Buzzfeed, TheSkimm, PopSugar, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Ms. Magazine, Oprah Daily, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Lit Hub * A Most Anticipated Book of the Year: The Millions, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Crimereads

In 2006 Julia Lerner is living in Moscow when she’s recruited by Russia’s largest intelligence agency. By 2018 she’s in Silicon Valley as COO of Tangerine, one of America’s most famous technology companies and funneling intelligence back to the motherland. But now Russia''s asking for more, and Julia’s getting nervous.

Alice Lu is a first generation Chinese American whose parents are delighted she’s working at Tangerine. Too bad she’s slogging away in the lower echelons, recently dumped, and now sharing her expensive two-bedroom apartment with her cousin Cheri. One afternoon, while performing a server check, Alice discovers some unusual activity, and now she’s burdened with two distressing suspicions: Tangerine’s privacy settings aren’t as rigorous as the company claims, and the person abusing this loophole might be Julia Lerner herself.

The closer Alice gets to Julia, the more Julia questions her own loyalties. Russia may have placed her in the Valley, but she built her career herself; isn’t she entitled to protect the lifestyle she’s earned? Part page-turning cat-and-mouse chase, part shrewdly-observed examination of women in tech and Silicon Valley hubris, Impostor Syndrome is “a sharp take on the illusion of the American Dream” (People).

“Featuring Russian espionage [and] commentaries on data privacy, class disparities, and immigration, Impostor Syndrome seems to build a genre of its own.” —NPR’s 1A

“Wang . . . sharpens her teeth on [Silicon Valley’s] self-mythologizing and excesses.” —San Francisco Chronicle

''Captivating from the first sentence'' Woman and Home''Vivid and precise, deliciously cool-eyed, immensely readable'' Jonathan Franzen''Beautiful, superbly told ... just sublime!'' Woman''s WeeklyJoan Liang''s life is a series of surprising developments: she never thought she would leave Taiwan (and for all places, California), nor did she expect her first marriage to implode - especially as quickly and spectacularly as it did. She definitely did not expect to fall in love with an older, wealthy American and become his fourth wife and mother to his youngest children. Through all this she asks herself the question familiar to so many of us: what are we living for? And are we ever truly satisfied? Vivid, comic and intensely moving, The Satisfaction Café is a novel about all of the joy, sorrow, betrayal and beauty that come with marriage and family - and above all, about life''s endless capacity to surprise us.