Lan Samantha Chang

Chang acquired quite an illustrious reputation with Hunger, her first collection of stories. Now she’s exceeded the expectations generated by that book with her first novel, Inheritance, a multi-generational saga that follows the Wang family through the twentieth century, from imperial China to modern America. At one point, Chanyi, “old” at thirty-four and part of the last generation whose women had bound feet, takes her daughters Junan and Yinan to a fortune teller to find out if she might still bear her husband a son. Chang’s style is spare, her prose unassuming but deceptively powerful. In just a few pages she constructs the kind of psychological atmosphere that allows the reader to feel deeply, in an almost eery way, this woman’s quiet devastation. AI Johnson Great Room, McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, UM East Bank; Minneapolis; 612-625-6366