JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
This is a family story for the 21st century, and Joy Osmanski navigates the audiobook with panache. Listeners meet the Huang family patriarch and his entire family when he is diagnosed with cancer. Each member is carrying their own challenges. Osmanski is adept with shifting voices from character to character. She adds accents that largely enhance the listening experience, or at least do not detract from it. Sometimes cynically funny, other times melancholy, but always observant, what emerges from this audiobook is an interesting set of portraits of contemporary personalities and a study of how families interact in the face of adversity. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
A globe-trotting, whirlwind, tragi-comic family saga that wrings tears from absurdity and laughter from loss. A joy to read from start to finish.” — Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize
“An old plot device gets a fresh life in this debut novel about a family gathering around the impending death of its patriarch in Silicon Valley.” — Washington Post
“Guaranteed jackpot for book clubs.” — People, Book of the Week
“Addictive....a story about families and what connects everyone to one another, about the ties that bind and what the comfort that financial security can bring to people inside the hamster wheel of American consumerism.” — NPR.org
“Astute…[Wang] brings levity and candor to the tricky terrain of family dynamics, aging, and excess [and] expertly considers the values of high-tech high society.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“American literature knows family about as well as anything else....By now the clichés write themselves. Yet debut author Kathy Wang confidently leans into them, spicing up old stories — the tense reunions and fatal betrayals and dying fathers — with fresh faces.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Readers who enjoy complicated novels about family issues will find this engrossing work impossible to put down.” — Library Journal (starred review)
“FAMILY TRUST reads like a brilliant mashup of The Nest and Crazy Rich Asians (with a soupçon of Arrested Development for good measure). It’s dark and funny and entertaining and thoughtful all at once. The best kind of family drama. I loved every page.” — Cristina Alger, author of The Banker’s Wife
“This social satire is Kathy Wang’s debut, and it bristles with wit.” — Toronto Star
“A mash-up of Crazy Rich Asians and the TV series Silicon Valley, with elements of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire Of The Vanities and Jane Austen’s comedy of manners and family dynamics.” — Irish Times
“Appealing, warm and witty...Family Trust is the perfect title, though Crazy Rich Asians (alas, already taken) would describe this deliciously entertaining novel just as well.” — AARP Magazine
“At once a Chinese-American story, a Silicon Valley story, and a family saga with great characters and robust storytelling. It’s smart and wickedly funny, too, which is a winning combination.” — Bookreporter.com
“Funny and compelling.” — Southern Living
“Dryly cynical...the hook, however, lies in Wang’s relatable portraits of the various members of the Huang family.” — The Globe and Mail
“Insightful, witty and acutely honest....[Wang’s] dissection of the glamorous appeal of this superficial slice of life succeeds on many levels.” — BookPage
“Wang speaks with authority, insight, and irony about the ethnic and socio-economic realities at business school, in Silicon Valley, in mixed-race relationships and marriages. A strong debut.” — Kirkus Reviews
“[Wang] explores Silicon Valley subculture with wit and ultimately reveals a deep understanding of her feckless strivers.” — Booklist
“Silky in satire, the writing is biting, bristling, intelligent; this is a detached story of modern family ties, frequently funny but seldom warm.” — Irish Times
“It’s a story of trust in both senses of the word, and Wang guides us effortlessly through that intertwining mess of love and resentment that only family can create. She does so against the backdrop of Silicon Valley wealth and pretensions, perfectly skewering its (and our) culture of excess.” — Buzzfeed
“Insightful, witty and acutely honest.... Succeeds on many levels and will appeal to a wide variety of readers.” — BookPage
“A wicked and witty send up of Asian-American Silicon Valley elite, a delightful debut that Jane Austen would have approved of.” — Micah Perks, author of What Becomes Us
“FAMILY TRUST offers an exquisite rendering of the way relationships evolve and are nurtured over a lifetime, and of the circumstances that either draw individuals closer or drive them apart.” — Meghan Maclain Weir, author of The Book of Essie
“A sharp, spirited and wholly original take on the American Dream.” — Jillian Medoff, bestselling author of This Could Hurt
“Family Trust is a smart, thoughtful, and funny read that you won’t want to put down.” — Popsugar
“Set in a Silicon Valley that is as monstrous and absurd as it is true to life, Family Trust examines the nature of family loyalty and obligation as well as the choices that set lives on seemingly irreversible courses.” — San Francisco Book Review
Toronto Star
This social satire is Kathy Wang’s debut, and it bristles with wit.
Book of the Week People
Guaranteed jackpot for book clubs.
Cristina Alger
FAMILY TRUST reads like a brilliant mashup of The Nest and Crazy Rich Asians (with a soupçon of Arrested Development for good measure). It’s dark and funny and entertaining and thoughtful all at once. The best kind of family drama. I loved every page.
Andrew Sean Greer
A globe-trotting, whirlwind, tragi-comic family saga that wrings tears from absurdity and laughter from loss. A joy to read from start to finish.
NPR.org
Addictive....a story about families and what connects everyone to one another, about the ties that bind and what the comfort that financial security can bring to people inside the hamster wheel of American consumerism.
Entertainment Weekly
American literature knows family about as well as anything else....By now the clichés write themselves. Yet debut author Kathy Wang confidently leans into them, spicing up old stories — the tense reunions and fatal betrayals and dying fathers — with fresh faces.
Washington Post
An old plot device gets a fresh life in this debut novel about a family gathering around the impending death of its patriarch in Silicon Valley.
Irish Times
A mash-up of Crazy Rich Asians and the TV series Silicon Valley, with elements of Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire Of The Vanities and Jane Austen’s comedy of manners and family dynamics.
Washington Post
An old plot device gets a fresh life in this debut novel about a family gathering around the impending death of its patriarch in Silicon Valley.
Booklist
[Wang] explores Silicon Valley subculture with wit and ultimately reveals a deep understanding of her feckless strivers.
San Francisco Book Review
Set in a Silicon Valley that is as monstrous and absurd as it is true to life, Family Trust examines the nature of family loyalty and obligation as well as the choices that set lives on seemingly irreversible courses.
Jillian Medoff
A sharp, spirited and wholly original take on the American Dream.
Popsugar
Family Trust is a smart, thoughtful, and funny read that you won’t want to put down.
BookPage
Insightful, witty and acutely honest....[Wang’s] dissection of the glamorous appeal of this superficial slice of life succeeds on many levels.
The Globe and Mail
Dryly cynical...the hook, however, lies in Wang’s relatable portraits of the various members of the Huang family.
Bookreporter.com
At once a Chinese-American story, a Silicon Valley story, and a family saga with great characters and robust storytelling. It’s smart and wickedly funny, too, which is a winning combination.”
Buzzfeed
It’s a story of trust in both senses of the word, and Wang guides us effortlessly through that intertwining mess of love and resentment that only family can create. She does so against the backdrop of Silicon Valley wealth and pretensions, perfectly skewering its (and our) culture of excess.
AARP Magazine
Appealing, warm and witty...Family Trust is the perfect title, though Crazy Rich Asians (alas, already taken) would describe this deliciously entertaining novel just as well.
Micah Perks
A wicked and witty send up of Asian-American Silicon Valley elite, a delightful debut that Jane Austen would have approved of.
Meghan Maclain Weir
FAMILY TRUST offers an exquisite rendering of the way relationships evolve and are nurtured over a lifetime, and of the circumstances that either draw individuals closer or drive them apart.”
Southern Living
Funny and compelling.
Booklist
[Wang] explores Silicon Valley subculture with wit and ultimately reveals a deep understanding of her feckless strivers.
JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
This is a family story for the 21st century, and Joy Osmanski navigates the audiobook with panache. Listeners meet the Huang family patriarch and his entire family when he is diagnosed with cancer. Each member is carrying their own challenges. Osmanski is adept with shifting voices from character to character. She adds accents that largely enhance the listening experience, or at least do not detract from it. Sometimes cynically funny, other times melancholy, but always observant, what emerges from this audiobook is an interesting set of portraits of contemporary personalities and a study of how families interact in the face of adversity. L.B.F. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
