All I Ever Wanted

"Jane Lo is a wonderful writer, and she has created some vivid and endearing characters." - A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Puzzler

"A rare and genuine depiction of early parenthood. There is joy and tenderness here, as well as anxiety-inducing in-laws, health issues, and the pressure of earning one's keep in a major city. After reading it I found myself missing the characters that inhabit this novel, I re-read passages of it, just to spend more time with them." - Caitlin Thomson, author of Incident Reports

"Jane Lo's debut novel All I Ever Wanted is a heartfelt Hong Kong love story. She writes with lyrical precision and finely observed emotions of the private lives of ordinary people with candor, wit and vision." - Xu Xi, author of Habit of a Foreign Sky

"Charming, authentic and moving." - L.A. Larkin, author of The Safe Place

DESCRIPTION :

Norah, a vivacious ESL teacher in Hong Kong, deftly straddles two worlds: she is Chinese, but sees life through a western lens because of her upbringing. These two worlds collide when she meets sweet, chivalrous Ben and marries him against her parents' wishes. Suddenly a wife and daughter-in-law in a traditional Chinese household, Norah is torn between speaking Chinese and English, between being Ben's wife and her own person, and between giving in to her mother-in-law's senseless demands and standing up for herself and the way she wants to raise their baby, Joey. Ben, meanwhile, finds himself running in circles in an attempt to keep the peace, but to no avail: Despite his best efforts, his mother continues to be critical and disapproving, and his wife quietly discontented. But when Ben's mother unwittingly puts baby Joey's life in danger, Norah and Ben realize they cannot go on like this. How much are they willing to give up for their happily ever after-or is a happy ending firmly out of reach for a couple like them?

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