<p><i>Confucius Jane </i>by debut author Katie Lynch is a lush and charming novel that vividly depicts New York City's Chinatown while taking the reader on a touching journey of family, community, and love.</p><p>On leave from college, Jane Morrow has a new job, helping out in her uncle's fortune cookie factory, and a new roommate--her precocious 11-year-old cousin. Though surrounded by her loving family and their close-knit Chinatown community, Jane feels like a colossal failure. Writing fortunes is a kind of poetry, but Jane is penning words of wisdom for strangers while wondering if she will ever have the guts to move on with her life.</p><p>When Jane meets medical student Sutton St. James at her local noodle shop, sparks fly. Sutton stands at a career crossroads: surgical residency or stem cell research overseas? The first is what her father, former Surgeon General and &quot;America's doctor,&quot; has planned for her, but the latter might help find a cure for her mother's debilitating MS. Neither would make either of them comfortable with their daughter's sexuality. Sutton's only certainty is that she has no time for a relationship--yet neither she nor Jane can deny the chemistry between them. </p><p>Jane opens a whole new view of family to Sutton, a powerful counter to Sutton's cold, sterile upbringing. Sutton inspires Jane to be more ambitious and to dream again--and challenges her to have faith in herself. But can Sutton and Jane overcome a scandalous secret that threatens to keep them apart?</p>