From the author of the âsharp, smart, and gloriously extraâ (Nancy Jooyoun Kim, New York Times bestselling author) Good Morning America Book Club Pick The Fortunes of Jaded Women, a stunning family dramedy about estranged siblings competing to inherit their fatherâs Vietnamese sandwich franchise and unravel family mysteries.
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the national Vietnamese sandwich chain Ducâs Sandwiches, has decided to retire. No one has heard from his wife, Evelyn, in two decades. She abandoned the family without a trace, and clearly doesnât wany anything to do with Duc, the business, or their kids. But the money has to go to someone. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in undesirable, old-school Little Saigon locations across America: Houston, San Jose, New Orleans, and Philadelphiaâwithin a year. But if the first-born (and only) son, Jude, gets married first, everything will go to him.
Each daughter is stuck in a new city, battling gentrification, declining ethnic enclaves, messy love lives, and struggling to modernize their fatherâs American dream. Jude wonders if he wants to marry for love or for moneyâor neither. As Ducâs children scramble to win their inheritance, family mysteries begin to unravel along the way as they learn the real intention behind the inheritance schemeâand the secret their mother kept tucked away in the fireplace, all along.
The Family Recipe is about rediscovering oneâs roots, different types of fatherly love, legacy, and finding a place in a divided country where the only commonality among your neighbors is the universal love of sandwiches. And perhaps, the only ingredient is the ability to say, âIâm sorryâ.