The Satisfaction Cafe
'Insightful, necessary and beautiful' Ann Patchett
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
'Captivating from the first sentence' Woman and Home
'Vivid and precise, deliciously cool-eyed, immensely readable' Jonathan Franzen
'Beautiful, superbly told ... just sublime!' Woman's Weekly
Joan Liang's life is a series of surprising developments: she never thought she would leave Taiwan (and for all places, California), nor did she expect her first marriage to implode - especially as quickly and spectacularly as it did. She definitely did not expect to fall in love with an older, wealthy American and become his fourth wife and mother to his youngest children. Through all this she asks herself the question familiar to so many of us: what are we living for? And are we ever truly satisfied?
Vivid, comic and intensely moving, The Satisfaction Café is a novel about all of the joy, sorrow, betrayal and beauty that come with marriage and family - and above all, about life's endless capacity to surprise us.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
American author Kathy Wang’s third novel is a quietly profound story about how quickly life can change, without warning, and how we adapt to that change. Its protagonist is Joan Liang, who leaves her native Taiwan for the US, has a brief first marriage and then meets an older, very wealthy man. She experiences hardships as well as great luck, both of which are handled with Wang’s trademark emotional intelligence, sensitivity and empathy. Eventually, Joan opens the titular cafe, where everyone who enters is offered a compassionate ear. This isn’t a propulsive page-turner, but a slow-burning, character-driven novel which immerses the reader in its vividly realised world, to the point where the characters feel like old friends and saying goodbye at the end is a wrench. If you like Ann Patchett, this is one for you.
