Livonia Chow Mein
A Novel
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3 Months Free
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Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
Livonia Chow Mein
Narrated by:
Katharine Chin, Keyonni James
Buy Now for £14.37
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Narrated by:
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Katharine Chin
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Keyonni James
In the vein of Happiness Falls and Family Lore, a gripping story of family history and political upheaval centered around a Chinese family-owned restaurant in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and its impact on the neighborhood’s Jewish and Black residents over the course of a century.
In 1978, two tenements on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville burn to the ground, killing one resident and displacing dozens of others. It remains unclear who set the buildings ablaze, but the survivors are convinced the culprit is Mr. Wong.
Who exactly is Mr. Wong, and what allegedly drove him to this extraordinary act of violence, is the question that consumes this novel as it plunges into four generations of Wong family history. First is Koon Lai, an immigrant who runs a Chinese restaurant on Livonia Avenue; second, his son Richard, a man desperate for his own chance at the American Dream; and third, Jason, a poet who seeks his escape in the bohemian counterculture of the 1970s, but finds himself an unwitting participant in Brooklyn’s gentrification. In the 21st century, Jason’s daughter Sadie returns to Brownsville as a journalist, determined to unravel the mystery of what happened decades earlier on the night the buildings blazed.
Joining together the present and the past is the community organizer Lina Rodriguez Armstrong, who was also displaced by that fire and who has spent the intervening years fighting for the rights of Brownsville’s residents and organizing a Livonia Avenue community land trust.
A stunning debut from a new talent, Livonia Chow Mein contemplates how the American pursuit of freedom relies on a collective amnesia and challenges us to consider what it would take for us to truly live in harmony.
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Critic reviews
"An exceptionally well-realized portrayal of an ever changing urban landscape."
"Set in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, this mesmerizing debut audiobook illuminates immigration, family, gentrification, and community activism with depth and empathy. Katharine Chin splendidly guides listeners through four generations of Wong/Chin family history, inviting listeners to imagine the daily lives of this Chinese American family, which achieved the American dream with much struggle, sacrifice, and family strife. Keyonni James portrays a wide array of neighborhood residents and especially shines as Lina, a Black Puerto Rican activist whose faith in her community is inspirational. Both narrators excel at depicting Brownsville through the years. The propulsive plot shifts among the residents and even includes an investigation into a suspicious 1978 building fire."
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