Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What We Were Promised | 2018 | Lucy Tan | Buy |
What We Were Promised (2018) is set in a luxury Shanghai high-rise where the Zhen family lives after returning from the United States. The novel moves between past and present as the family confronts old loyalties, class guilt, and the distance between who they were and who they have become.
Tan tells the story from multiple perspectives, including the family’s housekeeper, whose point of view gives the novel a wider social range. The Zhens left China years ago for America, and their return to Shanghai puts them in a strange position: wealthy but not quite at home. When someone from their past shows up, old promises and unresolved feelings come flooding back.
The novel received strong reviews for its handling of immigration, class, and family obligation. Tan’s prose is precise and spare, and the Shanghai setting is drawn with specific detail. What We Were Promised is her debut novel.