Joan is a doctor and a workaholic. When her father dies in a fall (or a stroke that caused a fall), she travels to the funeral in China for a weekend. She knows the sizes and lives of everyone around her, yet has no deep connections with anyone. Joan struggles with her heritage and identity. As we learn her story we have inklings as to why. 

Weike Wang writes a tight and great novel. She tells this story of family and grief through Joan’s eyes. The first person point of view helps Joan to be relatable and makes her loneliness and idiosyncracies more acute. Wang also writes the pandemic in an interesting way capturing key aspects that are resonant. I listened to the audio book. I liked the tone the narrator gave the book, allowing me to read Joan more clearly. I really like Joan. 

Home, belonging, family, grief, migrations, love, and father-daughter relationships were all part of the story. The complexities of living on a different continent from your parents was something I never considered. And I loved the reflections on the ways for parents care for their kids. Joan’s claim that she “Made a life here!” made this a beautiful coming of age story with a great ending.