Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li

The Beijing Duck House in Rockville, Md., was the vision of Chinese immigrants Bobby Han and his wife, Feng Fei Wang. Though uprooted from a vastly different culture than the one in which they landed, they found success through fierce dedication and hard work.

After Bobby’s death, his son Jimmy becomes the restaurant’s owner. On the surface, all flows smoothly.
But when two teenage employees, children of Chinese immigrants with a vested interest in the Duck House, act on their abhorrence of the restaurant’s demands, their tragic choice irrevocably changes the lives of all those connected to the enterprise.

In this intriguing, culturally sensitive novel for adults, which contains some vulgar language and several sexually explicit scenes, author Lillian Li explores the ramifications of immigration; the cost to relationships when work, for whatever reason, takes precedence over spending time with family; and the length to which parents will go to save their children from self-inflicted ruin. Li’s characters are remarkably well-drawn, and her complex plot reveals layer upon layer of reasons for the characters' actions. (Henry Holt & Co.)