![]() ![]() ![]() In fact, the cops are being overall very disappointing, bringing in no crime scene investigators or any of the other exciting things she’s come to expect from TV. She also prepares for them several pots of mind sharpening tea, and is put out when they rebuff her generous offer. She’s watched enough television to know that she shouldn’t interfere with the corpse itself, but can’t help tidying up around it so that the cops will be impressed by the prettiest crime scene they’ve hopefully ever come to. That all changes when she comes down one morning to find a dead body in her shop. She’s very proud that he’s a big-shot lawyer now, but as her clientele dwindles, her loneliness increases, such that all the determination she begins each day with slowly turns into a glum longing for oblivion by the time she trudges up the stairs in her shophouse to bed. Worse, her only child Tilly rarely finds the time to reply to her constant texts. We begin with the daily routine of the titular Vera Wong, owner-proprietor of San Francisco’s very own (and probably trademark infringing) Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse. This is absolutely one of my favorite books, not only of hers but of the year so far. As always, Jesse Q Sutanto writes about Asian and Southeast Asian diasporas with brilliant insight, empathy and humor. I absolutely devoured this by turns heart-warming and heart-wrenching tale of a lonely old teahouse owner who finds a new lease of life by meddling in a murder investigation. ![]()
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