River East, River West

Set against the backdrop of developing modern China, this mesmerizing literary debut is part coming-of-age tale, part family & social drama, as it follows two generations searching for belonging & opportunity in a rapidly changing world—perfect for readers of Behold the Dreamers, White Ivy, & The Leavers.

Shanghai, 2007: 14-year-old Alva has always longed for more. Raised by her American expat mother, she's never known her Chinese father, and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva's hopes are dashed, & so she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats & the ever-wilder thrills of a city where foreigners can ostensibly act as they please.

1985: In the seaside city of Qingdao, Lu Fang is a young, married man & a lowly clerk in a shipping yard. Though he once dreamed of a bright future, he is one of many casualties in his country’s harsh political reforms. So when China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, Lu Fang’s world is split wide open after he meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about his current status in life, & how much will ever be enough.

In a stunning reversal of the east-to-west immigrant narrative & set against China’s political history & economic rise, River East, River West is an intimate family drama & a sharp social novel.

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“My novel, River East, River West, is in part a social portrait of restless & suffocated youth in Shanghai. I’ve long been fascinated by the effect of place on adolescence, how a locale’s social & environmental factors exerts an influence on how young people behave or misbehave, how landscape informs crevices of society young people burrow into or the barriers they break out from.”