Three Summer Expat Memoirs

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The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, & Home on the Far Side of the World 

By Tracy Slater 

The Good Shufu is a true story of multicultural love, marriage, and mixups. When Tracy Slater, a highly independent American academic, falls head-over-heels in love with the least likely person in the world--a traditional Japanese salaryman who barely speaks English--she must choose between the existence she'd meticulously planned in the US and life as an illiterate housewife in Osaka. Rather than an ordinary travel memoir, this is a book about building a whole life in a language you don’t speak and a land you can barely navigate, and yet somehow finding a truer sense of home and meaning than ever before. A Summer ’15 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, The Good Shufu is a celebration of the life least expected:  messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.

Putnam/Penguin, June 30, 2015

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras

By Leza Lowitz

At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and traveling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley during the feminist revolution of the 1970s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they?
When Leza moves to Japan and falls in love with a Japanese man, her heart opens in ways she never thought possible. But she’s still an outsider, and home is far away. Rather than struggle to fit in, she opens a yoga studio and makes a home for others. Then, at 44, Leza and her Japanese husband seek to adopt—in a country where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She travels to India to work on herself and back to California to deal with her past. Something is still not complete until she learns that when you give a little love to a child, you get the whole world in return.
The author’s deep connection to yoga shows her that infertile does not mean inconceivable. By adapting and adopting, she transcends her struggles and embraces the joys of motherhood.

Stone Bridge Press, June 9, 2015

Year of Fire Dragons: An American Woman's Story of Coming of Age in Hong Kong

By Shannon Young

In 2010, bookish 22-year-old Shannon follows her Eurasian boyfriend to Hong Kong, eager to forge a new love story in his hometown. She thinks their long distance romance is over, but a month later his company sends him to London. Shannon embarks on a wide-eyed newcomer's journey through Hong Kong—alone. She teaches in a local school as the only foreigner, explores Asia with other young expats, and discovers a family history of her own in Hong Kong. The city enchants her, forcing her to question her plans. Soon, she must make a choice between her new life and the love that first brought her to Asia.

Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, has called Year of Fire Dragons "a riveting coming of age story" and "a testament to the distance people will travel for love." 

Blacksmith Books, June 7, 2015

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras by Leza Lowitz

Title: Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras
Author: Leza Lowitz
Publication: Stone Bridge Press (June 30, 2015)
Summary: At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and traveling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley during the feminist revolution of the 1970s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they? 

When Leza moves to Japan and falls in love with a Japanese man, her heart opens in ways she never thought possible. But she’s still an outsider, and home is far away. Rather than struggle to fit in, she opens a yoga studio and makes a home for others. Then, at 44, Leza and her Japanese husband seek to adopt—in a country where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She travels to India to work on herself and back to California to deal with her past. Something is still not complete until she learns that when you give a little love to a child, you get the whole world in return.

The author’s deep connection to yoga shows her that infertile does not mean inconceivable. By adapting and adopting, she transcends her struggles and embraces the joys of motherhood.

What I Think

I'm not massively into memoirs as I prefer fiction to non-fiction, but what appealed about Leza Lowitz's Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras was that it is set in Japan (and I always love reading about different people and cultures) and it is about a couple's journey to adoption, something which I know relatively little about but am very interested in. 

Lowitz writes: 

"In Japan, there's a word for empty space, like the white around a haiku on the page, the blank canvas on the top of a scroll of calligraphy, or the void between rocks in the ocean where sacred rope is strung. It's called ma, written as the sun seen through a gate. It is also the universal name for Mother. Ma..."

I feel that this book encompasses three love stories. The first is with Shogo, a man who lets her be herself and quietly sweeps her off her feet. 

The second love story is with yoga. "I fall in love with yoga as I fell in love with Shogo." Yoga is something I have tried in the past and failed at. My body is not flexible enough and my mind won't make my body keep trying. Lowitz, however, shows far more dedication and through yoga she tries to break down the walls she has built around herself. "I dive deeper into my yoga. I sweep my arms overhead, open my heart, and salute the sun. I imagine bringing in light, joy, contentment."

And the final love story is with her child. Leza Lowitz's account of her journey to adoption is brutally honest. "In my body," she writes, "the center was empty when it should have been full. [...] Everywhere I turn, I see pregnant women - mothers pushing strollers, shopping, talking absent-mindedly on their cell phones as their kids throw tantrums. What I wouldn't give for a screaming child, I think. I try not to wallow or judge, but I fail." I had no idea what level of commitment is needed to adopt a child, especially in Japan. When Shogo and Leza were finally successful, it brought tears to my eyes. 

This woman's account of the ups and downs of her life will always stay with me and I hope that if you read it, it has a similar effect on you. 

About the Author

Leza Lowitz’s memoir about her journey to motherhood over two oceans, two decades, and two thousand yoga poses, Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras, comes out soon.

Her books Yoga Poems: Lines to Unfold By, Sacred Sanskrit Words (w/Reema Datta) and Jet Black & The Ninja Wind (w/ Shogo Oketani) are amazon best-sellers. She’s written for The New York Times, Yoga Journal, Shambhala Sun, Best Buddhist Writing, The Huffington Post, and The Japan Times. 


Her YA verse novel, Up from the Sea, is forthcoming from Crown/Penguin Random House. 


Website: www.lezalowitz.com

Three Summer Expat Memoirs

Click here to enter a giveaway!

The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, & Home on the Far Side of the World 

By Tracy Slater 

The Good Shufu is a true story of multicultural love, marriage, and mixups. When Tracy Slater, a highly independent American academic, falls head-over-heels in love with the least likely person in the world--a traditional Japanese salaryman who barely speaks English--she must choose between the existence she'd meticulously planned in the US and life as an illiterate housewife in Osaka. Rather than an ordinary travel memoir, this is a book about building a whole life in a language you don’t speak and a land you can barely navigate, and yet somehow finding a truer sense of home and meaning than ever before. A Summer ’15 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, The Good Shufu is a celebration of the life least expected:  messy, overwhelming, and deeply enriching in its complications.

Putnam/Penguin, June 30, 2015

Here Comes the Sun: A Journey to Adoption in 8 Chakras

By Leza Lowitz

At 30, Californian Leza Lowitz is single and traveling the world, which suits her just fine. Coming of age in Berkeley during the feminist revolution of the 1970s, she learned that marriage and family could wait. Or could they?
When Leza moves to Japan and falls in love with a Japanese man, her heart opens in ways she never thought possible. But she’s still an outsider, and home is far away. Rather than struggle to fit in, she opens a yoga studio and makes a home for others. Then, at 44, Leza and her Japanese husband seek to adopt—in a country where bloodlines are paramount and family ties are almost feudal in their cultural importance. She travels to India to work on herself and back to California to deal with her past. Something is still not complete until she learns that when you give a little love to a child, you get the whole world in return.
The author’s deep connection to yoga shows her that infertile does not mean inconceivable. By adapting and adopting, she transcends her struggles and embraces the joys of motherhood.

Stone Bridge Press, June 9, 2015

Year of Fire Dragons: An American Woman's Story of Coming of Age in Hong Kong

By Shannon Young

In 2010, bookish 22-year-old Shannon follows her Eurasian boyfriend to Hong Kong, eager to forge a new love story in his hometown. She thinks their long distance romance is over, but a month later his company sends him to London. Shannon embarks on a wide-eyed newcomer's journey through Hong Kong—alone. She teaches in a local school as the only foreigner, explores Asia with other young expats, and discovers a family history of her own in Hong Kong. The city enchants her, forcing her to question her plans. Soon, she must make a choice between her new life and the love that first brought her to Asia.

Susan Blumberg-Kason, author of Good Chinese Wife, has called Year of Fire Dragons "a riveting coming of age story" and "a testament to the distance people will travel for love." 

Blacksmith Books, June 7, 2015

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

About the Book


This wonderfully clever debut novel (by the now fully-established David Mitchell) takes you on a roller-coaster journey of humanity through nine separate, yet interlinking characters and places. 

What I think 


I love books that allow you discover different countries and cultures. For that, this book is amazing! It starts out on a small island off the coast of Japan and takes us to Tokyo, Hong Kong, 'Holy Mountain', Mongolia, St. Petersburg, London, a tiny Irish island and New York. As the journey through the different cultures and minds of different people progresses you find yourself asking what it is we are looking for in life.  


As a writer it is sometimes hard to find an individual 'voice' for each of your characters, but this is something that Mitchell does extremely well. At the beginning of each new chapter, each new character has a distinctly different voice. If you flicked through the book and stopped randomly on a page, you'd know immediately which character you were reading. 


I loved the fact that the chapters could be standalone short stories but they were simultaneously interconnected. I found myself constantly looking for clues as to how the latest chapter would be linked to the last. If I have one negative comment, it's that some of the chapters were harder work than the others. Mitchell is obviously a very clever guy, but some of us are just not that clever. All the science was a little baffling at times, but I felt skimming some of these sections didn't detract from the overall picture. 



About the Author

David Mitchell (b. 1969) is an English novelist. He obtained a degree from the University of Kent in English and American Literature followed by an M.A. in Comparative Literature. 


He lived in Sicily for a year and in Japan for over eight years. He currently lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.
 Ghostwritten (1999), the first of his five novels, won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. His subsequent two novels, number9dream (2001) and Cloud Atlas (2004), were nominated for the Man Booker Prize. He is also the author of Black Swan Green (2006) and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010).