 |  | Meet New York Times best selling author Kirstin Chen in conversation with Anna Katsavos as they discuss Counterfeit (2023), a Reese’s Book Club pick and the subject of a fierce eight-way bidding war for TV rights. Fast-paced thriller, feminist caper, and cautionary tale all rolled into one, this clever read is lots of fun. Thoroughly entertaining, Chen has set out to deconstruct the American dream as well as the myths of “the model minority,” exploding stereotype after stereotype about Asian and Asian Americans. Main characters Ava Wong and Winnie Fang, college roommates turned con-artists, find themselves involved with a designer handbag scam that is about to blow up. Ava, a strait-laced, rule-abiding Chinese American lawyer with a successful surgeon as a husband, a young son, and a beautiful home has built the perfect life. Winnie, once timid and shy, is now a confident woman of the world, dripping in luxury goods -- including a coveted Birkin in classic orange -- but she needs a favor. And so the adventure begins. Presented via alternating points of view and told in two very distinct voices, the protagonists' confessions aim to explain how Ava and Winnie's ordinary lives detoured toward a life of crime, but, in the end, we are left wondering whose version is authentic and whose is fake. Time will be reserved for Q&A.
Pair this course with the book discussion led by Anna Katsavos (Course 12425), also in the winter schedule. Separate registration is required.
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