Saturday, January 10, 2009

Janice Y. K. Lee

Janice Y. K. Lee is the author of The Piano Teacher, which the publisher describes as "In the sweeping tradition of The English Patient, a gripping tale of love and betrayal set in war-torn Hong Kong."

From the author's brief Q & A with Lauren Mechling of the Wall Street Journal:

WSJ: You grew up in Hong Kong but you lived in the United States from high school through your early thirties. When did you know you wanted to write a book about Hong Kong?

Ms. Lee: I never thought I would. And I'm as surprised as anyone that I wrote a historical romance. It's not the type of book I tend to read. When I was in my twenties, I was writing stories about twenty-somethings in New York or Koreans in 1970s Hong Kong. And then I wrote a short story about a young Chinese girl and her English piano teacher and I knew that was something I didn't want to stop thinking about. And then I decided to move it back to the war. That really opened up a lot of possibilities for the story.
Read the complete Q & A.

Visit Janice Y. K. Lee's website.

--Marshal Zeringue