by Jean Kwok
First published 2015
Charlie Wong washes dishes in a cramped restaurant kitchen, her world bounded by the narrow streets of New York's Chinatown. At twenty-two, she shares a tiny apartment with her widower father, a noodle maker, and her eleven-year-old sister. Her mother was a Beijing ballerina, but Charlie has inherited none of that grace. When she lands a receptionist position at a ballroom dance studio, she enters a realm that feels foreign and thrilling. The studio awakens talents she never knew she possessed. Her body learns to move with unexpected elegance. Her confidence grows with each lesson. But her father views Western influences with deep suspicion, forcing Charlie to hide her transformation. When her younger sister falls seriously ill, their father insists on traditional Eastern remedies that fail to help. Charlie faces an impossible choice between the two worlds pulling at her. She must find a way to save her sister while protecting the new identity she has fought to build.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Chinatown, New York
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
448 pages · Paperback · Penguin Publishing Group