Family Trust: A novel

Adult Fiction

The Nest meets Crazy Rich Asians in this sharp comedic novel about a Chinese-American family’s attempts (or not) to fulfill its dying patriarch’s final bequest.

“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

Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Meet Stanley’s family: son Fred, frustrated that his years of academic striving (4.0 GPA! Harvard MBA!) haven’t protected him from career stagnation; daughter Kate, balancing a capricious boss, a distracted husband, and two small children; ex-wife Linda, familiar with and suspicious of Stanley’s grandiose ways; and second wife Mary, giver of foot rubs and ego massages.

For years, Stanley has insistently claimed that he’s worth a small fortune. Now, as the Huangs come to terms with Stanley’s approaching death, they are also starting to fear that Stanley’s “small fortune” may be more “small” than “fortune.” A “study in the difference between expectation and reality” (npr.org), a bittersweet rumination on what we owe our families, and a sharp-eyed look at Silicon Valley’s culture of excess, Family Trust is a “dryly cynical” (Globe and Mail) satire of the American dream.

Kathy Wang grew up in Northern California and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.