A Long Stay in a Distant Land

Book excerpt: The Lums are cursed. Their early deaths come randomly, strangely, and often, be it by tainted cheeseburger or speeding ice cream truck. The most recent victim is Louis Lum's mother. Now Louis must move back home with his gangsta rap-obsessed father, Sonny, to prevent him from enacting the revenge he promises. But soon Louis's concern shifts to his uncle Bo Lum, who has disappeared in Hong Kong. As Louis's search progresses, the tragicomic story of three generations of Lums in America is revealed. Chieh Chieng graduated from the creative writing program at the University of California, Irvine, and has been published in Glimmer Train, the Threepenny Review, and the Santa Monica Review. * Chosen for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers Program * "This is a dazzling debut: poignant, prickly, and deliciously absurd."-Booklist "[Chieng is] a fresh comic voice...a touching and auspicious debut."-Orange Country Register