Synopses & Reviews
From the bestselling author of Girl in Translation, an inspiring novel about a young woman torn between her family duties in Chinatown and her escape into a more Western world.
Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Wong grew up in New Yorks Chinatown, the older daughter of a Beijing ballerina and a noodle maker. Though an ABC (American-born Chinese), Charlies entire life has been limited to this small area. Now grown, she lives in the same tiny apartment with her widower father and her eleven-year-old sister, and worksmiserablyas a dishwasher.
But when she lands a job as a receptionist at a ballroom dance studio, Charlie gains access to a world she hardly knew existed, and everything she once took to be certain turns upside down. Gradually, at the dance studio, awkward Charlies natural talents begin to emerge. With them, her perspective, expectations, and sense of self are transformedsomething she must take great pains to hide from her father and his suspicion of all things Western. As Charlie blossoms, though, her sister becomes chronically ill. As Pa insists on treating his ailing child exclusively with Eastern practices to no avail, Charlie is forced to try to reconcile her two selves and her two worldsEastern and Western, old world and newto rescue her little sister without sacrificing her newfound confidence and identity.
Review
Praise for Mambo in Chinatown
“A charming fable.” —USA Today
“A riveting story . . . [one of] the seasons hottest page-turners.” —Real Simple
“In her winning second novel, Kwok infuses her heartwarming story with both the sensuality of dance and the optimism of a young woman coming into her own.” —Booklist
“Charlies Cinderella story, not to mention Charlie herself, is charming.”—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Jean Kwok was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn as a young girl. She is the author of the national bestseller Girl in Translation and Mambo in Chinatown. Jean received her bachelor's degree from Harvard and completed an MFA in Fiction at Columbia. She worked as an English teacher and Dutch-English translator at Leiden University in the Netherlands, and now writes full-time.