Chinese-American expat family drama sparks Lucy Tan's promising debut novel

Homecomings aren’t always sweet. And for Lina and her husband, Wei, they can be outright dangerous when a long-lost brother’s return threatens to pull their family apart.

This seemingly inconspicuous visit sparks generations of stories fraught with star-crossed romance, familial anxiety and expat privilege in Lucy Tan’s debut novel, “What We Were Promised” (Little, Brown, 336 pp., ★★★½ out of four).

The book takes place in Shanghai, a hybrid city – part frenetic metropolis and part historical monument, constantly morphed by both Chinese and global influences.

It’s the perfect setting for Tan as she artfully tumbles back and forth in time and place, from the silk factories of Lina and Wei’s childhoods to the lonely landscapes of America and back to China again, where they try to reconcile family tensions in the wealthy high-rises of Shanghai.

Rather fittingly, the novel starts in transit. In 1988, Lina and Wei stand in the Shanghai Hongqiao airport terminal, on their way to start new lives in America. Just months before their arranged marriage, Lina fell in love with Qiang, Wei’s rebellious younger brother, who suddenly disappeared and is assumed dead because of his gang involvement.

Fast-forward 22 years, and Wei receives a call from Qiang, who is very much alive and wants to reconcile with his brother and Lina.

But a lot has changed in the time Qiang has been gone: Both Lina and Wei have spent years working for success in America, and are back in China as wealthy expats.

Lina and Wei's parents are dead from a tragic train crash, but the two now have a quick-witted daughter named Karen, who studies in the States. Though the three of them spend their summer days together in Shanghai’s luxurious Lanson Suites, Lina finds that they really live in the “in-between,” a space that is neither Chinese nor American.

“What had been the point of immigrating if not to enjoy American privilege?” the novel asks.

The answer is not so simple, Tan illustrates, as she takes her time fleshing out the multitudes that go into an identity: national obligations, family responsibility, the guilt of newfound wealth, and above all, love.

The family drama unfolds quietly in front of Sunny, their ever-perceptive housekeeper in China. She adds her own dimension to the story after her co-worker, Rose, steals Lina’s treasured ivory bracelet, a shameful admittance that the foreign and expatriate wealthy residents’ “belongings had power over (Rose), that their wealth was worth exactly what they wanted it to be worth.”

“What We Were Promised” is bustling with themes like these, ones that focus on the terrifyingly complex facets of what it means to be Chinese-American, an immigrant, and an expat.  But Tan certainly has enough bandwidth to handle these heavy topics, sifting them through a single family with forlorn honesty and compassion.

The only time Tan’s extraordinary pacing fails is when the central conflict between Lina and Qiang is resolved quickly after Qiang's return. All it takes is the revelation of a single secret, wrapping up this sweeping family drama too neatly.

But it’s a small critique, because “What We Were Promised” glows through its intimate, skillful prose. Tan’s debut is a beautiful reckoning with the ever-changing definition of “home” – what it means to have, lose and find family again.

WPXI