I am so incredibly excited to share this giveaway for three new memoirs written by American women who live and found love in Asia. Shannon Young’s Year of Fire Dragons takes place in Hong Kong, while Tracy Slater’s The Good Shufu and Leza Lowitz’s Here Comes the Sun take place in Japan. All three memoirs captivated my attention from the beginning until I finished in one or two sittings. They’re that amazing.
The three memoirs have some overlap. Shannon Young and Tracy Slater both moved halfway across the world for love. Leza Lowitz was already living in Japan when she met her future husband, but the couple moved to the US for a decade before returning to Japan. Tracy and Leza both write about their desire to become mothers in their forties. All three show how they settled into cities where English is not the mother tongue.
To enter the giveaway for all three books, sign up here!
And to read more about the memoirs, here are links and summaries.
The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, & Home on the Far Side of the World
The Good Shufu is a true story of multicultural love, marriage, and mixups. When Tracy Slater, a highly independent American academic, falls head-over-heels in love with the least likely person in the world–a traditional Japanese salaryman who barely speaks English–she must choose between the existence she’d meticulously planned in the US and life as an illiterate housewife in Osaka. Rather than an ordinary travel memoir, this is a book about building a whole life in a language you don’t speak and a land you can barely navigate, and yet somehow finding a truer sense of home and meaning than ever before. A Summer ’15 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, The Good Shufu is a celebration of the life least expected: messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.
Putnam/Penguin, June 30, 2015
Year of Fire Dragons: An American Woman’s Story of Coming of Age in Hong Kong
In 2010, bookish 22-year-old Shannon follows her Eurasian boyfriend to Hong Kong, eager to forge a new love story in his hometown. She thinks their long distance romance is over, but a month later his company sends him to London. Shannon embarks on a wide-eyed newcomer’s journey through Hong Kong—alone. She teaches in a local school as the only foreigner, explores Asia with other young expats, and discovers a family history of her own in Hong Kong. The city enchants her, forcing her to question her plans. Soon, she must make a choice between her new life and the love that first brought her to Asia.
Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, has called Year of Fire Dragons “a riveting coming of age story” and “a testament to the distance people will travel for love.”
Blacksmith Books, June 15, 2015
Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras
By Leza Lowitz
At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and traveling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley during the feminist revolution of the 1970s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they? When Leza moves to Japan and falls in love with a Japanese man, her heart opens in ways she never thought possible. But she’s still an outsider, and home is far away. Rather than struggle to fit in, she opens a yoga studio and makes a home for others. Then, at 44, Leza and her Japanese husband seek to adopt—in a country where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She travels to India to work on herself and back to California to deal with her past. Something is still not complete until she learns that when you give a little love to a child, you get the whole world in return. The author’s deep connection to yoga shows her that infertile does not mean inconceivable. By adapting and adopting, she transcends her struggles and embraces the joys of motherhood. “Here Comes the Sun proves that love is not bound by blood. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in that which connects us, holds us together, and makes us family.”—MC Yogi
Stonebridge Press, June 2015
I am a surprisingly few degrees separated from Tracy, as I did an internship in Japan under one of her friends. As someone who is familiar with the Japanese culture I would love to read about Tracy’s (and the other writers’) experiences!
Wow, that’s very cool! Have you read her book? If not, I highly recommend it! One of the best to come out this summer!
Thank you so much for featuring these books Susan, they are wonderful! Been on my ‘to read’ list for quite a while now!
More great books to read, thank you very much Susan. 🙂
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy reading them!
Thank you Susan for featuring these books! These are wonderful, and I can’t wait to read them!
I met my boyfriend while I was an exchange student!