A novel about Taiwan by Taiwanese-American novelist Julie Wu

American novelist Julie Wu's debut novel is set for a Spring 2013 release date
in English from Algonquin Books, a top publishing company of quality books. The novel was
ten years in the making, a long work in progress, that finally found a home with a good publisher
with national marketing clout, so expect good sales and some prizes along the way. If all goes well,
expecet a Chinese-language translation for readers in Taiwan, and perhaps a Japanese edition as well.

"I first started interviewing my parents for the novel in 2001," Wu says. ''In 2005, I [temporarily] “finished” writing the novel -- a book based on my father’s remarkable triumph over abuse, set in Taiwan during World War II and later in America in the 1950s.'' The book was written and rewritten and revised and revised and is set for a stellar launch when it's released. The novel describes some of the events of 228 and the White Terror period in Taiwan.

[Dr Wu is in the process of researching her second novel, which she plans to base on the lives of political prisoners in Taiwan.]

The novel takes place during the tumult of post-World War II Taiwan, where the dis-favored son of a Taiwanese politician fights his brother for the woman he loves -- and for the chance to make a life with her in America. It may be one of the most important English-language novels about Taiwanese life and culture,
in Taiwan and overseas as well, ever. Sure to be a popular book among Taiwanese-Americans overseas,
and might even make a great movie directed by someone like Taiwanese director Ang Lee. Magic happens!





NOTE: The book won a short-listing in the 2009 William Faulkner-William Wisdom Novel-in-Progress Competition and will be published by Algonquin Books in Fall 2012. Her short fiction has won honorable mention in the 2010 Lorian Hemingway Short Story Contest and is being published in Columbia Magazine’s Spring, 2011 issue. Also a physician of internal medicine, Dr Wu has had a personal essay published in The Journal of the American Medical Society (JAMA).

In a recent interview, we asked Dr Wu a few questions about the genesis of her novel, its themes,
and where she hopes the book will lead.