Katie Couric Media’s Let’s Go Places: 30 Summer Novels Set Seaside

“After her husband dies, Ellie finds out he was cheating on her. In a painful fit of grief, she decides to cash in his life insurance policy and take off for Antibes, France. There, she books an extended stay in the luxurious Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc with her best friend Mable Chou. Told through the eyes of an Asian American woman, this wonderful debut novel touches on race, class, privilege, and friendship.” – Katie Couric Media

YOU CAN’T STAY HERE FOREVER ON The Page 69 Test

“…I think the page 69 test gets the highest marks for You Can’t Stay Here Forever–it delivers a perfectly timed snapshot of Ellie’s state of mind in the first half of the novel, as well as sets up the trajectory for the second half. With her life blown up by tragedy, Ellie is at work, ready to make a break for it. I wish I could say that the problems she faces on page 69 are all that she’ll contend with in the book, but many more demons shall greet her abroad–in France, Ellie will realize that her husband’s death has caused a reckoning that sheds a blazing light in her life, forcing her to question everything she thought was true about herself.” – The Page 69 Test

Library Journal’s Shore Bets: 19 BeAch Reads to While Away the Summer

“This lively mix of big names and new discoveries offers quickly engaging plots and summery settings whether readers are miles from the beach, atop a city skyscraper, at a lake house, or on the sidelines of a Little League game. Get ready to dive into the deep end. Summer will go swimmingly with these 19 selections.” – Library Journal

Orange County Register’s 15 Must-read Books

“What It’s About: Bay Area attorney Lin makes her literary debut with a novel about a widow who discovers her late husband was cheating on her. She uses his life insurance money to flee to French Riviera with her best friend, where the two befriend a couple — but things soon get complicated.” – Orange County Register’s 15 Must-read Books

june 13 book launch at bookshop west portal in san francisco

Join Katherine Lin for the launch of her debut novel at Bookshop West Portal on June 13 at 7pm!

“a captivating new voice on the literary scene”

“…but it’s Lin’s sharp writing and perspectives on the Asian American experience in modern times, the shifting tides of marriages and the complexity of friendships that signals a captivating new voice on the literary scene.” - East Bay Express

“probing, astute”

“A probing, astute portrayal of a fraught and late-blooming coming-of-age.” - Kirkus

“A wry and exciting debut”

“You Can't Stay Here Forever is a keen and expansive rumination on love, betrayal, and class set between the Bay Area and the South of France. A wry and exciting debut that while set in rarified luxury, portrays universal struggles of friendship, work and marriage.” –Kathy Wang, author of Family Trust and Impostor Syndrome 

“DELIGHTFUL, POIGNANT, AND THRILLING”

"Katherine Lin's You Can't Stay Here Forever is compulsively readable, so much so that it's easy to overlook the astute intelligence that permeates every page. Reading this novel is like falling in love: delightful, poignant, and thrilling."
-Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation and Searching for Sylvie Lee 

“…sinuous and Bacchic prose”

“This glistening debut is filled with all the wanderlust, rage, and longing of early adulthood, and proves–in sinuous and Bacchic prose–that  the dissolution of a friendship is a terrifying prospect.” –Courtney Maum, author of The Year of the Horses 

“brilliantly observed…handled with the lightest of touches.”

“I was totally drawn in from the first page of You Can’t Stay Here Forever. All the contradictions of Ellie’s situation as the American child of East Asian immigrants are explored with empathy and nuance, and the book’s brilliantly observed, horribly recognizable moments are handled with the lightest of touches.” –Emily Itami, author of Fault Lines 

Cover reveal

Designed by the brilliant Joanne O'Neill.