Register 50 Seats Remaining
The author presents and discusses her novel "And the Ancestors Sing." Doors open at 10:45 a.m. for coffee & pastries. The conversation begins at 11 a.m. Book signing to follow.
Registration requested, but not required.
About the Books (from the publisher):
In 1978, as the Cultural Revolution fades into history, Lei is bartered away into marriage for two cartons of cigarettes and a handful of eggs. She finds herself in the unfamiliar village of her new husband where she is met with indifference. When a disaster upends their world, Lei and her husband are forced to join China’s vast wave of city-bound, rural migrants, leaving behind children whom they may never see again.
Sixteen-year-old LuLu arrives in Shanghai with nothing but ambition. Denied a factory job and determined to keep her family from starving, she turns to sex work, navigating the dangers of the city’s underbelly with sharp wit and a fierce will to survive. When a powerful client offers her a chance at security, LuLu faces an impossible choice: seize a future that could lift her family from poverty, or risk everything for a life on her own terms.
Spanning decades of seismic change in post-Cultural Revolution China, "And The Ancestors Sing" is a sweeping, multigenerational novel of resilience, sacrifice, and the unbreakable pull of home, perfect for fans of "Pachinko" and "The Island of Sea Women."
In Conversation: 
Radha Lin Chaddah was born in London to an East Indian father and a Malaysian Chinese mother, she grew up in Kenya, the UK, and the US. After earning medical, law, and public health degrees, she and family have lived across the globe before settling in Philadelphia. Radha enjoys learning new Mandarin characters, tackling novice knitting projects, painting with watercolors and acrylics, catching a live, stand-up comedy show with husband Avery, trying out new recipes with daughters Yani and Ayo, and, of course, jotting down story notes for her next writing project.
Amy Jo Burns is the author of the memoir "Cinderland" and the novel "Shiner," which was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick and an NPR Best Book of the year. Her latest novel, "Mercury," is a Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick, a Book of the Month Pick, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and an Editor’s Choice selection in The New York Times. Amy Jo’s next novel, "Wait for Me," is coming March 3, 2026.
