Lifestyle

Novelist Kevin Kwan is back with a bang- as he usually is

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) Singapore-born and now a naturalised American, Keven Kwans “Crazy Rich Asians” was a number one New York Times bestseller, a major motion picture, and has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Hollywood Reporter has named him one of the “Five Writers To Watch” on the list of Hollywood’s Most Powerful Authors. In 2018, he made it to TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people.

Now, Kwan, who also has under his belt “China Rich Girlfriend” and “Rich People Problems” now returns with “Sex and Vanity” (Penguin Random House), a comedy of manners set between two cultures that is seen as a tribute to E.M Forsters “A Room With a View” and its Merchant-Ivory film adaptation.

On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill, the daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, sets eyes on Mafiosi of sorts George Zao and instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can view the Tyrrhenian Sea and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa.

Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself and she adamantly denies having feelings for George but several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiance, she finds herself drawn to him again.

Moving between the summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, “Sex and Vanity” is a truly modern love story.

–IANS

vm/in

Back to top button