LoveReading Says
Fizzing with “how on earth will this play out?” intrigue and all the page-turning pace of a stylish screen thriller, Kirstin Chen’s Counterfeit lays bare a web of deceit that’ll have readers questioning what they’d do in a similar situation, debating characters’ motivations and ethics, and wondering what they’d have done to escape (or not). It’s brilliantly compelling stuff that also addresses the prejudicial vagaries of the American Dream.
On the face of it, Ava has it all – she’s a Stanford graduate married to a transplant surgeon who’s taking time out from a career in corporate law to care for their toddler. But in reality, Ava is terribly dissatisfied, and only went into law to keep her parents happy: “from the very beginning, I’d known my lot in life: to be good enough at my job, and to tolerate it until retirement”. Hardly a recipe for fulfilment. What’s more, because “I dreaded his disapproval most of all”, her husband has no idea.
Amidst growing marital tensions, while struggling with a three-year-old who won’t stop crying. Ava bumps into Winnie, her former college roommate. After leaving Stanford in the midst of a cheating scandal, Winnie appears dressed head-to-toe in designer garb, with a scandalously expensive bag collection. When Ava runs into financial trouble on a trip home to Hong Kong (thanks to her controlling husband), she decides to do Winnie a favour that’ll provide her with much-needed cash. A favour that sees Ava bound up in Winnie’s counterfeit bag business, with no easy way out.
Ava’s compulsive account of events is addressed to a detective, but there being two sides to every story, we’re also presented with Winnie’s account of their early friendship, and how she came to coax Ava into her enterprise. It’s an extremely entertaining novel, with wry commentary, too. As Ava notes, “Winnie is the American dream, and that’s what drives everyone mad, mad, mad - that she had the gall to crash their game and win it all”.
Joanne Owen
Find This Book In
Counterfeit Synopsis
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICKA con artist story, a pop-feminist caper, a fashionable romp . . . Counterfeit is an entertaining, luxurious readbut beneath its glitz and flash, it is also a shrewd deconstruction of the American dream and the myth of the model minority. . . . Chen is up to something innovative and subversive here."e; Camille Perri, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEWRecommended by New York Times Book Review Washington Post People Entertainment Weekly USA Today Time Cosmopolitan Today show Harpers Bazaar Vogue Good Housekeeping Parade New York Post Town Country GMA.com Buzzfeed Goodreads Oprah Daily Popsugar Bustle theSkimm The Millions and more!For fans ofHustlersandHow to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, thestoryoftwoAsian American womenwho band together togrowa counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprisean incisive andglitteringblend offashion, crime,andfriendshipfrom the author ofBury What We Cannot TakeandSoy Sauce for Beginners.Money cant buy happiness but it can buy a decent fake.Ava Wonghas always played it safe.As a strait-laced,rule-abidingChinese American lawyer with asuccessfulsurgeonas ahusband,ayoung son,andabeautiful homeshes built theperfectlife. Butbeneath thisfaade,Avas world iscrumbling: her marriage isfalling apart,herexpensivelawdegreehasnt been usedinyears, andhertoddlers tantrums are pushing her to the breaking point.Enter Winnie Fang, Avas enigmatic college roommate from Mainland China,whoabruptlydropped out under mysterious circumstances.Now, twenty years later,Winnie islooking to reconnectwith her old friend. But the shy, awkward girl Avaonce knewhas been replaced with a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods, including a coveted Birkin in classic orange.The secret to her success?Winnie has developed an ingenious counterfeit schemethat involves importing near-exact replicas of luxuryhandbags and now she needs someone with a U.S. passport tohelp manageher businesssomeone whod never be suspected of wrongdoing, someone like Ava.Butwhen their spectacular success is threatened and Winnie vanishesonce again,Avais left to face the consequences.Swift, surprising,andsharplycomic,Counterfeitisastylish and feminist caperwith a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life."e;If you appreciate a good caper, youll want to pick up Kirstin Chens novel . . . Fast-paced and fun, with smart commentary on the cultural differences between Asia and America."e; TIMEPropulsive and captivating . . . A provocative story of fashion, friendship, and fakes (in more ways than one). VOGUE
About This Edition
