The Foreigner A Novel [Paperback]

Winner of the Edgar? Award for Best First Novel by an American Author

Set against the Taiwanese criminal underworld,The Foreigneris 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 Foreigneris 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.

Discussion Questions

1. Emerson's mother has a complicated relationship with America  she seems to believe that America has its value, but that it also poses a threat. Why does she think that American culture will taint her children, and what is this idea that she claims to be protecting when she insists that Emerson marry a Chinese woman?

2. Along those same lines, is it common for one generation to wish that the next generation marry within the family's cultural group? Why?

3. Why dolœ