You're listening to Coatswitch, I'm Lori Lissarraga.

It's an unseasonably warm Thursday afternoon in New York.

I'm with my co-host, BA Parker, on an impromptu city tour of sorts.

It's cool right here.

Yeah, we're thankful for trees.

That is, there's a place I've been reading about that I really want to visit while I'm in the city.

From Midtown, it's about as far as South's ward that East River as you can go.

There's a cab ride, a half mile walk, and a subway involved.

As you exit, please be careful of the gap between the plants.

Parker is here to help, because as it turns out, I don't know which train to get on.

Oh no, that's good, that's good.

We get off the bridge with the rains.

We're on our way to Chinatown, and then we walk point four miles,

and then we'll get to Magstri.

And after all it took to get here, the first thing I noticed about this neighborhood is the quiet.

It feels very, very bubbled in and protected from the bustle that we just came from.

It's distinctly less overwhelming.

There's a soapy smell that's familiar to me.

We're looking for a 1915 apartment building.

It's the family home of author Ava Chin, and where it sits is the title of a new book,

Maot Street, a Chinese-American family story of exclusion and homecoming.

What we find is a six-story red brick building with Chinese characters down the front.

...