WANTING

A searing debut novel of envy, longing, and regret across three lives and two countries that asks how far we'll go for a friendship, a romance, a dream.

Ye Lian is thriving in Beijing. She has a well-paid job, a nice boyfriend, and plans to marry and move into a luxury high-rise apartment. She's wanting for nothinguntil her childhood best friend, Luo Wenyu, comes whirling back into her life after a decade in California with seemingly everythinga successful career as an influencer, a millionaire American fiancé, and a bespoke mansion in the Beijing suburbsthrowing Lian's own reliable choices into high relief. As the two women rekindle their friendship, Wenyu reveals a shocking secret about a past love that pushes Lian to question her own relationship. A few neighborhoods away, aging architect Song Chen is forced to confront his own past and the dissolution of his marriage as he's tasked with building Wenyu's dream home. And when the dark side of Wenyu's enviable life emerges and threatens everything Lian and Wenyu have built for themselves, they must make a choice between the stable known and the frightening unknown that may have devastating and unexpected consequences. In girlhood memories and karaoke afternoons in Xidan Square, in aspirational YouTube channels and billboard ads, in private hotel rendezvous and secret WeChat messages, Claire Jia's debut novel is a love letter to friendship; a powder keg of impossible, interwoven desires; a siren song that explores why, even as it destroys us, we always want more. Claire Jia is a writer and television writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Modern Love column, The Rumpus, Reductress, and more. She co-wrote the 2024 Peabody Award-winning video game We Are OFK.