Along Alien Roads: I-Jing of a Life

Along Alien Roads is an autobiographical novel by a Chinese American surgeon. Beginning with his ancestors and spanning over a century of recent Chinese history, the author traverses a path from Asia to America, between straight and gay, love and inevitable continual change, while sustaining the core of an Eastern spirit. "A finely woven tapestry of memories that takes the shape of a man who contains multitudes. Born to a family from Canton and Shanghai, a father in the Nationalist government, a mother who rode bareback in Siberia, her father a Chinese diplomat under the Czar and after the revolution. Exile in Taiwan, schooled in Japan . . . educated as an engineer at MIT, then as a physician, he shapeshifts from engineer to doctor, married man with children to gay man in Northern California to gay man in love with a woman. He is at once deeply Chinese and completely American; straight, gay, and bisexual he’s lived each category without being defined by a category. Comfortable in his own skin, yet uneasy in the ways he is different and forever in exile. Chen’s memoir is a wonder. Exquisitely written. Rich in detail. Deeply moving." — Michael Alenyikov (author of the award-winning novel Ivan and Misha)