Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Wong grew up in New York's Chinatown, the older daughter of a Beijing ballerina and a noodle maker. Though an ABC (American-born Chinese), Charlie's entire life has been limited to this small area. Now grown, she lives in the same tiny apartment with her widower father and her eleven-year-old sister, and works-miserably-as a dishwasher.
Jean Kwok is the author of Girl in Translation. She was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Brooklyn as a young girl. Between graduating from Harvard and attending the Columbia MFA program, she worked as a professional ballroom dancer.
"Western convention clashes with traditional Eastern culture when a
young, impoverished Chinese-American woman dips her toe into the
glittering world of professional ballroom dancing—and finds
love." — Woman’s Day
"Rarely has [this story] been told with such grace, lightness and
humor as in this delightful novel by the author of the best-selling
Girl in Translation (2010)." — Chicago Tribune
"Best Books of 2014: One of This Summer’s Hottest Page-Turners. A
riveting story about a young woman who ultimately finds her calling
and manages to exceed everyone's expectations - including, most
important, her own." — Real Simple
"A young woman who finds herself through ballroom dancing must make
peace with her old life in New York's Chinatown.
Charming." — USA Today
“Dreams Take Flight in Jean Kwok’s Mambo in Chinatown…a great story
of cultural conflict and reaching for your dreams.” — Boston
Herald
“Mambo in Chinatown has a propulsive narrative drive and tells an
often compelling tale of East-West conflict, adaptation, and
assimilation...[readers] will keep turning the
pages.” — Boston Globe
“… Like a ballroom dance itself: captivating and sure-footed, and
hard to look up from. Kwok draws from her own experience working in
Chinatown in her youth, eventually becoming a ballroom dancer and
taking to the floor with confidence. Kwok brings to the page all
the detail and fluidity that one would expect of a seasoned dancer
and writer.” — Bustle
“Kwok is at her best when exploring and smudging such differences
involving culture or class — which in turn suggests that any of us
really could become whomever we want to be.” — Journal
Sentinel
“Editors’ Picks: Excited for Jean Kwok’s Mambo in Chinatown. The
story is akin to that in Chimamanda Ngozi
Adichie’s Americanah, one of my favorite novels from 2013, in
that the main character is torn between two cultures and is unsure
of her place in either.” — Library Journal
"The kind of book where I put it down, closed my eyes, and the
characters were still dancing in my mind. Sweet and lovely, filled
with old-world tradition, Chinese superstition, and the complicated
dance of forbidden love." — Jamie Ford, New York
Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter
and Sweet and Songs of Willow Frost
“Although the characters are fictional, their personal struggles
and emotions are based upon authentic experiences, which make them
unforgettable.”
— Sing Tao (largest and oldest Chinese newspaper in the
US)
"In her winning second novel (after Girl in
Translation, 2010), Kwok infuses her heartwarming story with
both the sensuality of dance and the optimism of a young woman
coming into her own.” — Booklist
"Kwok has created a charming heroine into whose dance shoes readers
can easily step. Charlie faces many of the same dilemmas that
plague modern young women: balancing the demands of family and
career without sacrificing too much of either, choosing whether or
not to pursue love when it may mean giving up a fulfilling work
life. Kwok has a gift for conveying the passion and sensuality
of ballroom dancing in her energetic prose." — Shelf
Awareness
“Best Books Read in June: Kwok does an exceptional job of rendering
this lesser-visited part of America in a way that’s reverent toward
both sides of the story…The sister relationship between Charlie and
Lisa, who is much younger than her, was my favorite part of the
story though — the love they have for one another and the pain and
grief they endure together is vivid.”— Book Riot
"An engrossing cross-cultural coming-of-age tale." —
Largehearted Boy
“It’s hard to improve on the Cinderella theme, but Jean Kwok
manages to do just that.” — Book Reporter
"From Kwok (Girl in Translation, 2010), another story about a
plucky young Chinese-American woman whose hard work transports her
out of poverty and hidebound traditions to find love and success...
Charlie's Cinderella story, not to mention Charlie herself, is
charming.” — Kirkus
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