Carolyn Huynh

The Fortunes of Jaded Women

THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN is about an intergenerational Vietnamese family of estranged mothers and daughters who grapple with a famous Vietnamese psychic’s yearlong predictions. The family has long believed that they’re cursed, because the mothers are only able to bear daughters, never sons. But the psychic predicts that there will be a death, a marriage, and a pregnancy… where one of the daughters will give birth to a son. After nearly a decade of silence, the three mothers, who are sisters, come together, as they try to reconcile with the predictions. It sets off a guessing game, making the mothers meddle with fate as they try to stop certain predictions… or even alter them. Meanwhile, their daughters, who are scattered across the world, are busy dealing with their messy love lives, while also trying to search for the empty space between being Vietnamese and American. It culminates in a family reunion, where all the women wait with bated breath to see if the final prediction comes true, breaking the family curse once and for all.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster / Atria
Publication Date: September 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-1982188733

“You can always count me in for a story about generations of cursed women, but I was surprised—and thoroughly delighted—to discover how much I would laugh out loud at the exploits of these mothers, daughters, and sisters. Carolyn Huynh’s The Fortunes of Jaded Women is a terrific debut. I’m eager to read more from her.” -- Lisa See

“Sharp, smart, and gloriously extra, The Fortunes of Jaded Women pays homage to the counterfeit-Louis-Vuitton queens of the Vietnamese diaspora and West Coast witches everywhere. I laughed out loud at the familiar stubbornness, the high- and low-stakes cutthroatedness of these complex and lovable mothers and daughters." -- Nancy Jooyoun Kim, the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Story of Mina Lee

"Clever, hilarious, and deliciously dramatic. In this knockout debut, Huynh weaves a tangled, multigenerational story between fierce, stubborn Vietnamese mothers and their estranged daughters that is equally wild and heartfelt. It beautifully captures how far mothers would go to create a better life for their daughters and reconnect with them when their efforts go awry. Unlike their fake designer purses, this book is the real deal." -- Julie Tieu, author of The Donut Trap

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SIMON AND SCHUSTER

Carolyn Huynh grew up in Orange County, California, not appreciating the weather enough. She has a B.A. in journalism from Seattle University and a M.S. in human centered design from the University of Washington. The youngest daughter of Vietnamese refugees, her writing focuses on her mother’s tall-tales, superstitions, the diaspora, and memory (both real and imaginary). She especially loves writing about messy Asian women who never learn from their mistakes. After living up and down the west coast, she currently resides in Los Angeles with her dog. She still doesn't appreciate the weather enough. When she's not writing, Carolyn daydreams about having iced coffee on a rooftop in Saigon.

www.carolynkhuynh.com/

Tags: Adult, Contemporary, Women's Fiction, BIPOC