Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaung.

By her own evaluation, Lance Samantha Chang's first book, Inheritance, told the Chinese immigrant

story from a more subdued perspective, right? Her characters were quiet, hiding their past traumas,

suffering in silence, hoping to just move on, which is part of the Chinese immigrant

experience, but it's not the entirety of it. In her new book, The Family Chow, she writes about a

family that's loud, brash, on the verge of being verbally abusive to each other, which is to say

a very American family in a way.

She told NPR Scott Simon about wanting to expand the mold of what a Chinese American

family might look like and how she was inspired by a writer who is neither Chinese nor

American.

Dostoevsky.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people, helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

When Leo Chau was murdered at his fine chow restaurant, it makes many people in Haven, Wisconsin, remember their fine times over scaly and pancakes, steaming soup, and dumplings, as well as their respect for a hard-working immigrant family that includes

his wife Winnie and all three sons who earned their way into top schools. With Leo's death,

family secrets and resentments are revealed. As in Dostoevsky's the brothers Karamatssov,

Lan Samantha Chang writes in her new novel, The Family Chow, no one could have believed that such

good food was cooked by a bad person. Lan Samantha Chang, who is the author of the previous novel,

All is forgotten, nothing is lost, and is also Director of the Iowa Writers Workshop, joins us

now from Iowa City. Happy Year of the Tiger, and thanks so much

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