When an American woman
inherits the wealth of her Taiwanese family, she travels to confront them about
their betrayals of the past in this stunning debut by Lyn Liao Butler.
Lexa Thomas has never quite fit in. Having grown
up in a family of blondes while more closely resembling Constance Wu, she's
neither white enough nor Asian enough. Visiting her father in Taiwan as a
child, Lexa thought she'd finally found a place where she belonged. But that
was years ago, and even there, some never truly considered her to be a part of
the family.
When her estranged father dies unexpectedly,
leaving the fate of his Taiwanese family in Lexa's hands, she is faced with the
choice to return to Taiwan and claim her place in her heritage . . . or leave
her Taiwanese family to lose their home for good. Armed with the advice of two
half-sisters (one American and the other Taiwanese, who can't stand each
other), a mother who has reevaluated her sexuality, a man whose kisses make her
walk into walls, and her self-deprecating humor, Lexa finds the courage to
leave the comfort of New York City to finally confront the person who drove her
away all those decades ago.
With fond memories of eating through food
markets in Taiwan and forming a bond with a sister she never knew she had, Lexa
unravels the truth of that last fateful summer and realizes she must stand up
for herself and open her heart to forgiveness, or allow the repercussions of
her family's choices to forever dictate the path of her life.
Reviews ~
"The Tiger Mom's
Tale is a heartfelt, delightful read. Lyn Liao Butler's story of Taiwanese
and American identity had me turning pages and laughing (and drooling over the
delicious descriptions of food)."—Charles Yu, author of Interior
Chinatown, winner of the 2020 National Book Award
One of PopSugar's Best New Summer Books of 2021!
"Sharp and humorous, The Tiger Mom's Tale is a scenic, debut novel with a cast of complicated characters sure to bring laughter and discussion to your next book club. I can't wait to read what Lyn Liao Butler writes next!"—Tif Marcelo, USA Today Bestselling author of The Key to Happily Ever After
"Butler’s riveting debut follows a half-white personal
trainer who reconnects with her Taiwanese family after her biological father’s
death...Butler weaves in convincing descriptions of Lexa’s navigating of the
dating scene and the fetishizing of Asian women, and depicts a fascinatingly
complex antagonist in Pin-Yen, who by the end must contend with the effect of
her past actions. Butler breathes zesty new life into women’s
fiction."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Q & A with Lyn ~
Tell us about yourself and how you started writing.
I used to dance professionally (ballet and modern) in NYC. When
I moved to the suburbs, my friends wanted to know what I was doing, “up in the
country.” So I started a blog to keep them posted, and those blog posts became
the idea for my first book that I wrote in 2015. I had no writing background,
hadn’t even taken a writing course except what was needed for school, so it was
quite ambitious of me to think I could write a full-length novel.
Where do
you get your ideas?
From my life, the people I
come in contact with and things I hear in the news. There’s a saying, Be
careful of being friends with a writer. You never know if you will end up in
their book. That is so true for me. I do get my ideas and inspirations from the
people and things I see in life, but I always spin them in a way that most
people wouldn’t recognize myself. For instance, I take a trait of someone, or
something that happened, and I build a whole fictitious story around it. So
even though I’m getting inspiration from the people and events in my life, it’s
never about the people or events that sparked the idea.
Is there
a particular author or book that influenced or inspired your writing or
decision to write?
Yes! I
say this in every interview but Liane Moriarty is my all-time ultimate writing
idol. I read her books during a very hard period in my life, when literally
everything fell apart. I identified so much with her books, even though they
were set in Australia and I live in New York. There’s something magical about
her writing; I connected with the themes and feelings expressed in her book so
much. I never thought I would be a writer. I’ve always been a voracious reader.
But after reading Liane’s books, it inspired me to try writing, to see if I
could help someone else with my writing. She is the reason I even thought to
write a book, and I credit her with pushing me into this career that I never
imagined I would do.
What are
you working on now?
My debut and the following
book are adult fiction. Because I’m so far ahead in my writing (book 3 is
already written and book 4 is being plotted), I started writing YA. My agent
encouraged me to try it since I can’t sell another adult book until my current
publisher, Berkley, exercises my option. I pitched a YA idea to my agent and
she loved it so much that I wrote 40,000 words of it in two and a half weeks.
It’s lighter, more rom-com than my adult books, and I’m finding that I’m really
enjoying tapping into my inner teenage self.
What was
the most unique research you had to do for a book?
I like to
go to the places where I set my books so that I can experience it firsthand.
Most recently, I lived in Kauai for two months doing research for Book 3. For
some reason, someone always dies in my books, and I was trying to figure out
how a character was going to perish in Book 3. After hearing about the flooding
that happens during bad storms, I thought that would be a natural way someone
could die (yes, I know, kind of morbid to plot out a death). So I went around
asking people, “If there was a bad storm and the Wailua River flooded, could
someone who can’t swim be swept away and drown?” And when they said yes, I
answered with, “Oh, good! Then that’s how she’s going to die!” Which earned me
many strange looks as I tried to convince them I was a writer, really, and not
someone plotting a murder.
Author of THE TIGER MOM'S TALE, Penguin/Berkley (7/6/2021)
To connect with Lyn:
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