Justinian Huang’s new novel follows a Taiwanese-American family intent on a male heir

NPR's Book of the Day

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Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

Justinian Huang’s new novel Lucky Seed is about a single, gay son pressured by his Taiwanese-American family to produce a male heir. In an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered, Huang tells NPR’s Ailsa Chang that his own family asked him to have a baby boy – or else they would risk punishment in the afterlife. In today’s episode, Huang speaks with Chang about being the “chosen one” in his family, the concept of “hungry ghosts,” and how writing the book changed Huang’s relationship with his mother.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. A few weeks ago on the books
0:06.8	we've loved series we've been doing, we covered the Jane Austen classic Pride and Prejudice.
0:12.2	You can go back and listen to that episode if you haven't yet. It is a hoot and a half.
0:16.6	Anyway, in talking about the book, my co-host, B.A. Parker and I, NPR's Linda Holmes got into a discussion about Mrs. Bennett, the mom in the story, who sometimes gets portrayed as ditsy and controlling as she tries to navigate her own daughter's marital status.
0:33.9	But in a lot of ways, she's doing so out of love, out of care.
0:38.6	I was thinking about her listening to today's interview with Justinian Wong, author
0:42.4	The New Novel Lucky Seed.
0:44.4	It's about a gay son pressured by family to have a son.
0:49.0	Wong told MPR's Elsa Chang that the book is partly inspired by his own life and
0:54.0	his relationship with his own mother, and writing the book is partly inspired by his own life and his relationship with his own mother.
0:56.2	And writing the book helped him fall back in love with her again. That's coming up.
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1:32.2	More at science delivers.com.
1:35.3	For the billionaire Taiwanese-American family, the Sun clan, the future of the patriarchy rests on the shoulders of women.
1:43.2	Well, one woman in particular, Rose's son,
1:46.8	who believes the family fortune, can only survive by producing a male heir with the clan's last name.
1:53.0	The stakes are high because if no heirs remain on earth, roses believes that the family will be
1:58.1	punished by so-called hungry ghosts. And so she pressures her favorite
	...

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