Here is a statement from author Jean Kwok about the announcement:
“I’m thrilled that there is room these days for stories like mine about women, ambition and people of color. I have complete faith that Kristen and the amazing team at Fifth Season will bring my work to the screen with respect, creativity and authenticity.”
A “Girl in Translation” adaptation is in development at Warner Bros. Television. Stephanie Allain is producing the film. Know more about the author and get her books by visiting her website.
Here is the goodreads synopsis of Mambo in Chinatown:
From the bestselling author of Girl in Translation, a novel about a young woman torn between her family duties in Chinatown and her escape into the world of ballroom dancing.
Twenty-two-year-old Charlie Wong grew up in New York’s Chinatown, the older daughter of a Beijing ballerina and a noodle maker. Though an ABC (America-born Chinese), Charlie’s entire world has been limited to this small area. Now grown, she lives in the same tiny apartment with her widower father and her eleven-year-old sister, and works—miserably—as a dishwasher.
But when she lands a job as a receptionist at a ballroom dance studio, Charlie gains access to a world she hardly knew existed, and everything she once took to be certain turns upside down. Gradually, at the dance studio, awkward Charlie’s natural talents begin to emerge. With them, her perspective, expectations, and sense of self are transformed—something she must take great pains to hide from her father and his suspicion of all things Western. As Charlie blossoms, though, her sister becomes chronically ill. As Pa insists on treating his ailing child exclusively with Eastern practices to no avail, Charlie is forced to try to reconcile her two selves and her two worlds—Eastern and Western, old world and new—to rescue her little sister without sacrificing her newfound confidence and identity.
Here is the goodreads synopsis of The Leftover Woman. The book's release date is October 10th, 2023:
An evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women—from the New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee and Girl in Translation.
I was in the Beautiful Country. I needed to let go of my past if I were to have any hope of walking into the future I longed for, a future with my daughter in it.
Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth—another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy.
Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name and the wealth that comes with it, a high-powered career, a beautiful home, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. She’s even hired a Chinese nanny to help her balance the demands of being a working wife and mother. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble.
The Leftover Woman finds these two unforgettable women on a shocking collision course. Set against the backdrop of a city divided, Jean Kwok has crafted both a gripping suspense novel and a profound exploration of identity and belonging, motherhood and family. This is a twisting and surprisingly poignant tale that exposes the many ways we fail to understand each other when separated by race, wealth, culture, and language—and how these misunderstandings can have potentially deadly results.