Interior Chinatown

WINNER OF THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD


"By turns hilarious and flat-out heart-breaking, Charles Yu's Interior Chinatown is a bright, bold, gut punch of a novel."-Roxanne Gay, head judge


"A novel that manages the rare feat of being both extravagantly experimental and a lot of fun to read."-The Times, Best fiction books of 2020


"A funny, biting take down of the racism in the entertainment industry...both humorous and heartrending."-The Independent


"Devastating (and darkly hilarious)."-The New York Times


Willis Wu doesn't perceive himself as a protagonist even in his own life: He's merely Generic Asian man. Sometimes he gets to be Background Oriental Making a Weird Face or even Disgraced Son, but he is always relegated to a prop. Yet every day he leaves his tiny room and enters the Golden Palace restaurant, where Black and White, a procedural cop show, is in perpetual production. He's a bit player here, too, but he dreams of being Kung Fu Guy-the most respected role that anyone who looks like him can attain. At least that's what he has been told, time and time again. Except by one person, his mother. Who says to him: Be more.


Playful but heartfelt, a send-up of Hollywood tropes and Asian stereotypes, Interior Chinatown is Charles Yu's most moving, daring, and masterly novel yet.