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About the Book

About the Book

Interior Chinatown

Soon to be a Hulu series: From the infinitely inventive author of HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE, a deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, immigration, assimilation and escaping the roles we are forced to play.

Willis Wu doesn’t perceive himself as the protagonist in his own life: he’s merely Generic Asian Man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but always he is relegated to a prop. Yet every day, he leaves his tiny room in a Chinatown SRO and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where "Black and White," a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He’s a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy --- the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. Or is it?

After stumbling into the spotlight, Willis finds himself launched into a wider world than he’s ever known, discovering not only the secret history of Chinatown, but the buried legacy of his own family. Infinitely inventive and deeply personal, exploring the themes of pop culture, assimilation and immigration, INTERIOR CHINATOWN is Charles Yu’s most moving, daring and masterful novel yet.

Audiobook available, read by Joel de la Fuente

Interior Chinatown
by Charles Yu

  • Publication Date: November 17, 2020
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage
  • ISBN-10: 0307948471
  • ISBN-13: 9780307948472