In The Family Chao, Lan Samantha Chang delivers a quietly explosive family saga set in the heart of small-town Wisconsin, where the Chao family’s Chinese American restaurant is both a community staple and a stage for long-simmering drama. When the enigmatic patriarch Leo Chao is found dead under suspicious circumstances, his three sons are thrust into a whirlwind of grief, betrayal, and long-buried resentment.

With prose that is both sharp and lyrical, Chang explores themes of identity, belonging, and the fragile illusions of assimilation. At once a murder mystery, a modern retelling of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, and a biting portrait of familial obligation, The Family Chao dissects the tensions between generations, cultures, and personal desires with precision and empathy.

Chang masterfully balances dark humor with emotional depth, revealing the cracks in the Chao family’s carefully constructed image. The result is a novel that is as thought-provoking as it is compelling — an intimate look at what it means to be seen, misjudged, and ultimately human in a world that too often trades nuance for stereotype.

Read more at www.lansamanthachang.com

Image courtesy of Lan Samantha Chang and W.W. Norton & Company