Set across three continents over three months, this stunning and surprising novel tells the story of the professional and private life of thirty-something Australian-Taiwanese translator Fay.?
France
Almost on impulse, Fay treats her mother to a package summer holiday in France for her fiftieth birthday. It's a chance for the two of them to get away and reward themselves for their hard work. Yet in between the many museum and gallery visits on long coach trips, Fay works on a translation and deals with the fallout from breaking up with her married lover James Engleby. Late in the tour she learns that James has died, likely at his own hand. Just what awaits her on her return to Sydney?
Sydney
It's back to work – Fay's mum with her cleaning, and Fay at Sydney University under the expansive eye of her mentor, the newly widowed Professor Samantha Egan-Smith. Was Fay's lengthy affair with James, the professor's husband, a way for her to get even closer to the professor, or a means for her to exercise power over her boss?
Taiwan?
Fay is set to speak at the annual translator's conference about her work on Beef on Naan, a startling sexual fiction. Also, in James's place, she's scheduled to meet with renowned Taiwanese author?Wei-Liu, and hopefully secure the rights for his next English translation. It's ghost month in Taiwan, though, and Fay's mother is terrified that her daughter will encounter dangers and threats. And she's proven right. But there's almost nothing a mother won't do to protect her child.
Jessie Tu's second novel is a thrilling follow up to her acclaimed bestseller A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing: a wildly inventive tale about ambition, duplicity, betrayal, abandonment, the power of belief, cultural dissonance, love, and the vital importance of storytelling.