Amy is 34 year old woman, who always wanted to be a doctor. She leaves her career behind though after she got a call that her grandfather, Ah Goong, had suffered from a fall in one of the shops in the Welsh village where she grew up, and where her parents run the Chinese Takeaway Yau Sum. Ah Goong is admitted to a care home for the elderly, Amy moves back into her parents' apartment above the takeaway, while her parents move out. Why she left her career in the city behind is not very clear.
Her father TC Li and Ah Goong are not on speaking terms anymore with each other for the past thirty years, even when they lived both in the same small apartment This because of a secret that is revealed in the end of the book. We also learn about the troubled past of Amy's mother Joan, because the women who took care of her when her own parents couldnt, has passed away and has left Joan as a benificiary in her will. Now Amy has to look after her grandfather and after the Chinese takeaway. Shifting between past and present, the book gives a glimpse of her parents and grandfather, who came from Hong Kong to the UK, and how their lives impacted hers.
Happy Families is a book that is not like any other book. The story is not a very fast one, but what it lacks in speed, it makes it up in the story with many layers. The characters lack a little depth and stay one dimensional, but as a reader you can truly picture the family of Amy in your head. I found the plot twist in the book good, as the secrets in the family where revealed very slowly, this truly kept me interested as a reader. This is a book that truly focuses on the dynamics in Amy's family too. I liked it that also the past of Amy's parents and grandfather was shown and that it shifted from present to the past in alternating chapters.
I found this a very original book, that I certainly recommend reading!
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