Beautiful As Yesterday

A story of two sisters, past and present.

Mary and Ingrid are sisters, born and brought up in China, now resident in the US. Their experiences - of childhood, of living in a new country - are very different, however. Mary is the older of the two; dutiful and conscientious, she has a job that pays well, a husband who works hard, a young son whose days are filled with extra-curricula activities, and friends she's made through church. Ingrid on the other hand has never settled to anything; she qualified as an accountant, yet earns a living as a translator, an interpreter and sometimes tour guide, and, all the while, dreams about becoming a published writer; she's had a series of men in her life, but no one who's lasted.

Their differences are obvious, and Mary and Ingrid see relatively little of each other as a result. When their mother comes to the US for the first time, however, they can't avoid a family get-together. Amid all it stirs up, it becomes clear that the uneasy relationship between the sisters has its roots deeper than either has ever acknowledged - and extends top their relationships with both their mother and their homeland.

Written in tight, carefully crafted prose, Fan Wu's second novel explores what it means to belong, and the myriad ways in which our background shapes our lives and our loves - even when we think we've moved on.