About the Book: Set against the Taiwanese criminal underworld, The Foreigner is Francie Lin’s audacious debut novel. A noirish tale about family, fraternity, conscience, and the curious gulf between a man’s culture and his deepest self

Emerson Chang is a mild mannered bachelor on the cusp of forty, a financial analyst in a neatly pressed suit, a child of Taiwanese immigrants who doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, and, well, a virgin. His only real family is his mother, whose subtle manipulations have kept him close–all in the name of preserving an obscure idea of family and culture.

But when his mother suddenly dies, Emerson sets out for Taipei to scatter her ashes, and to convey a surprising inheritance to his younger brother, Little P. Now enmeshed in the Taiwanese criminal underworld, Little P seems to be running some very shady business out of his uncle’s karaoke bar, and he conceals a secret–a crime that has not only severed him from his family, but may have annihilated his conscience. Hoping to appease both the living and the dead, Emerson isn’t about to give up the inheritance until he uncovers Little P’s past, and saves what is left of his family.

The Foreigner is a darkly comic tale of crime and contrition, and a riveting story about what it means to be a foreigner–even in one’s own family.

My Review: I generally love books set in Asia, I should get that out of the way first! I also love thrillers and stories that grapple with identity.

This book is unique because Francie Lin is as female author tackling first person point of view from a male perspective. And it’s her debut novel. I think we can expect tremendous things from her in the years to come as she pulls it off pretty successfully. This novel is crisply written, there’s no unnecessary blathering within its pages, it’s sharp and to the point.

Emerson Chang has just lost his mother, the last relative and person with whom he has a strong tie and connection. Fulfilling her last wishes and intending to pass the inheritance on to his brother, he heads to Taiwan. Once he arrives, he discovers his brother is deeply involved in some business that appears to be illegal. Desperate to salvage this last familial tie, he quickly finds himself caught up in the seedy world of criminal activity in Taiwan with no clear answers in sight.

I found Emerson to be a sympathetic character for the most part. I have to admit I did not fully understand his attachment to his mother and um, her remains and this was a bit off-putting for me. While I could understand why he wanted to have a relationship with his brother, I found myself shouting, “go home!” at the book.

I guessed the criminal activity that his brother was involved in long before it was revealed but this could be because it’s something I pay a lot of attention to. Having said that, I still found this book to be a page turner and I caught myself thinking about it and wanting to return to it when I wasn’t reading. The sign of a great book for sure!

A great exploration into the dark and seedy world of criminal Taiwan, but more than that, an exploration of the true nature of family.

The Foreigner was published by Picador in June of 2008 and is available in stores now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 12:00 am

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