Number One Chinese Restaurant

Named a Must-Read by TIME, Buzzfeed, The Wall Street Journal, Star Tribune, Fast Company, The Village Voice, Toronto Star, Fortune Magazine, InStyle, and O, The Oprah Magazine

"A joy to readΓÇöI couldn''t get enough."
ΓÇöBuzzfeed

"This novel practically thumps with heartache and sharp humor."
ΓÇöChang-rae Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Native Speaker

An exuberant and wise multigenerational debut novel about the complicated lives and loves of people working in everyoneΓÇÖs favorite Chinese restaurant.

The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Maryland, is not only a beloved go-to setting for hunger pangs and celebrations; it is its own world, inhabited by waiters and kitchen staff who have been fighting, loving, and aging within its walls for decades. When disaster strikes, this working familyΓÇÖs controlled chaos is set loose, forcing each character to confront the conflicts that fast-paced restaurant life has kept at bay.

Owner Jimmy Han hopes to leave his late fatherΓÇÖs homespun establishment for a fancier one. JimmyΓÇÖs older brother, Johnny, and JohnnyΓÇÖs daughter, Annie, ache to return to a time before a fatherΓÇÖs absence and a teenagerΓÇÖs silence pushed them apart. Nan and Ah-Jack, longtime Duck House employees, are tempted to turn their thirty-year friendship into something else, even as NanΓÇÖs son, Pat, struggles to stay out of trouble. And when Pat and Annie, caught in a mix of youthful lust and boredom, find themselves in a dangerous game that implicates them in the Duck House tragedy, their families must decide how much they are willing to sacrifice to help their children.

Generous in spirit, unaffected in its intelligence, multi-voiced, poignant, and darkly funny, Number One Chinese Restaurant looks beyond red tablecloths and silkscreen murals to share an unforgettable story about youth and aging, parents and children, and all the ways that our families destroy us while also keeping us grounded and alive.