Meet the Wangs, the unforgettable immigrant family whose spectacular fall from glorious riches to (still name-brand) rags brings them together in a way money never could.
Charles Wang is mad at America. A brash, bighearted immigrant businessman who built a cosmetics empire and made a fortune, he’s just been ruined by the financial crisis. Now all Charles wants is to get his kids safely stowed away so he can go to China and attempt to reclaim his family’s ancestral lands—and his pride.
Charles pulls Andrew, his aspiring-comedian son, and Grace, his style-obsessed daughter, out of schools he can no longer afford. Together with their stepmother, Barbra, they embark on a cross-country road trip from their foreclosed Bel-Air home to the upstate New York hideout of the eldest daughter, disgraced art-world it-girl Saina. But with his son waylaid by a temptress in New Orleans, his wife ready to defect for a set of 1,000-thread-count sheets, and an epic smashup in North Carolina, Charles may have to choose between the Old World and the New, between keeping his family intact and finally fulfilling his dream of starting anew in China.
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Houghton)
Praise for The Wangs vs. the World
“Fresh, energetic, and completely hilarious, The Wangs vs. the World is my favorite debut of the year.” — Jami Attenberg, author of Saint Mazie and The Middlesteins
“Jade Chang’s debut novel is a heartbreaking, hilarious, and honest American epic: a road trip that’s an ultimate escape from our parents’ American dream, toward an unknown destination that’s both more vulnerable and hopeful.” — J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest
“Funny, brash, honest, full of wit and heart and smarts. This is a novel I wish I could write, have been dying to read, and hope everyone else reads, too.”—Charles Yu, author of Sorry Please Thank You and How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
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Houghton)