River East, River West

"In Aube Rey Lescure's beautiful debut novel, familiar narratives of adolescence are scrambled across lines of class, race, and national difference. As her characters deepen with each chapter, she makes us feel the inexhaustible mystery of other lives. A moving portrait of the love between a mother and daughter, River East, River West portrays, too, our powerlessness against the riptides of history." - Garth Greenwell, author of Cleanness

"River East, River West is a beautifully expansive tale of new beginnings-and the pasts we can't extricate ourselves from. From Qingdao to Shanghai, readers are invited into a richly layered world teeming with secrets, desires, and unexpected tenderness. Bright human insights shine through unforgettable characters fighting for their autonomy, often straining against familial bonds for a glimpse of freedom. In this exciting literary debut, Aube Rey Lescure deftly illuminates the difficult choices we make to save ourselves and each other." - Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon

"River East, River West is a searing and intimate exploration of both China and the American Dream. Poignant and propulsive, thoughtful, and moving. I loved this book." - Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee

"Captivating and sharp. . . Rey Lescure provides immersive depictions of Shanghai and Qingdao along with delicate character work. This is a remarkable story of a family caught between cultures." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Rey Lescure's brilliant debut alternates between the lives of Lu Fang and Alva, placing their desires and evolving story lines in a vibrant social context. . . With an assured hand, Rey Lescure illuminates how even someone who feels trapped and diminished can still make a life." - Booklist (starred review)

"An incredibly moving and acutely well-observed portrait of China throughout several decades." - Fuschia Dunlop, The New Yorker

"Immersive. . . At once autobiographical fiction and historical fiction, a Shanghai novel and a novel of the American dream, and a story in which families and countries fall apart, but also have a chance at fresh starts. Rey Lescure's prose is cinematic, compelling, perceptive and poignant." - The Guardian

"A compelling and thought-provoking coming-of-age story about identity and the narratives we create about ourselves. It's a vivid portrait of China and the uneasy relationships of class and family history." - Catherine Cho, author of Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness

'"River east, river west" comes from a famous Chinese saying, which suggests that the world or people's destiny are always in constant change, and there is no fixed path of rise, fall, honour, or disgrace. Aube Rey Lescure has represented this idea brilliantly in her novel." - Xinran, author of The Good Women of China and Sky Burial

"Brilliantly captures a young woman's coming-of-age story as she and her American expat mother navigate a world of social intrigue in modern-day China. The novel incisively asks questions about ambition, class, and legacy, while retaining unfailing compassion for its characters." - TODAY, Thao Thai, author of Banyan Moon

"I loved River East, River West, which portrays western expats in Shanghai with both clear-eyed critique and compassion." - R. F. Kuang, The Guardian

"This is a cinematic, subversive, deftly constructed, era-defining novel." - Jury Citation, 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

"An intergenerational epic . . . Rey Lescure's book is a kind of bildungsroman of country and culture. It's equally a haunting, a novel whose characters carry the specters of promise, often unfulfilled-of youth, of status, of wealth, and of a certain rosy view of American cultural power and opportunity." - Guernica magazine

"In River East, River West, Rey Lescure proves herself to be a remarkably humane storyteller, focusing on the ties between her characters and the worlds they inhabit in order to ground an ambitious, multi-generational story of global upheaval in personal, poignant detail." - Boston Globe

"River East, River West is a keen exploration of love, heritage, and the search for home, told through alternating points of view-rebellious Alva and her stepfather Lu Fang with secrets of his own. Aube Rey Lescure's portrayal of the glitter and grit of China's tumultuous economic rise is by turns luminous and searing. A haunting debut." - Vanessa Hua, author of Forbidden City

"At once tender and unflinching, River East, River West is a staggering, immersive coming-of-age set irresistibly amid the glamour and grime of a changing Shanghai. Aube Rey Lescure has crafted a vast, yet intimate, novel about performance and belonging, power and identity, that never loses focus on the fierce and broken hearts at its center-the magnetic repulsion and attraction of family splitting and reshaping. An extraordinary, riveting debut-I loved every word." - Katie Gutierrez, author of More Than You'll Ever Know

"Smart, confident storytelling. . . has perceptive things to say about the explosion of wealth in China and the fraught, totemic influence Americans have on the nation's psyche." - Wall Street Journal

"Delicately nuanced, devilishly propulsive, and achingly human, this is a coming-of-age story like no other." - Oprah Daily