‘The romance buzzes like a live wire’ – The New York Times

From the renowned, award-winning author Zen Cho comes a delightfully funny romance about family, class and love in modern London. For fans of the TV show Succession and Crazy Rich Asians.

From the outside, Renee Goh’s life looks perfect. She’s thirty and beautiful, running a glamorous-and successful-fashion company in London, and dating a hot pop star.

Until she’s dumped. Estranged from her family in Singapore, too, happiness soon feels a world away. A chance encounter with her first love, Yap Ket Siong, makes her question what she really wants. Then Renee’s father calls from Singapore and offers her the chance to become the successor of the family business, one of the largest conglomerates in Southeast Asia. Her father’s approval would mean everything – if she can fight off the competition of her unpredictable older brothers.

Just as she’s focusing on her future and a possible move back to Singapore, sparks seriously start to fly with Ket Siong, shaking her resolve to keep him in the friend zone. But he left her heartbroken at university – will either of them dare to share their feelings the second time around? Or will family business mean they can’t bank on each other . . .

Praise for The Friend Zone Experiment:

‘Mixes light and dark topics. There’s generational pain and the difficulty of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and culture, but there’s also diasporic joy, the power of female friendships, and above all, hope for Renee and Ket Siong’ – My Weekly

‘A story so intensely real that you’ll wonder later if it happened to someone you knew.’ – Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

‘A lovely, tender romance, beautifully threaded through real world concerns that had me engrossed. I savoured every delicately written moment.’ – Charlotte Stein, author of When Grumpy Met Sunshine

‘Reminiscent of classic K-dramas with a touch more reality . . . Easily one of my top reads of the year!’ – Simone Soltani, author of Cross the Line

We’ll meet an elderly ex-member of parliament, who recalls her youthful romance with an orang bunian. This was forbidden. Not because her lover was an invisible jungle spirit, but because she was Muslim and he was not. Then a teenage vampire struggles to balance homework, bossy aunties, first love . . . and eating people. A mischievous matriarch returns from the dead to disrupt her own funeral rites, pitting granddaughter against granddaughter. An earth spirit becomes entangled in protracted negotiations with an annoying landlord. And Chang E, the Chinese moon goddess, spins off into outer space – the ultimate metaphor for diaspora.

Across nineteen sparkling stories, this is a journey into magical new worlds of the imagination.

Praise for Zen Cho’s work:

‘An enchanting cross between Georgette Heyer and Susannah Clarke, full of delights and surprises’ -Naomi Novik, author of Uprooted, on Sorcerer to the Crown

‘Phenomenal. This is what it is to be queer and Asian . . . Magical and mundane, fierce and hopeful, Malaysian to the bone – this book is uncompromisingly itself’ – Shelley Parker-Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun on Black Water Sister

As Jessamyn packs for Malaysia, it’s not a good time to start hearing a bossy voice in her head. Broke, jobless and just graduated, she’s abandoning America to return ‘home’. But she last saw Malaysia as a toddler – and is completely unprepared for its ghosts, gods and her eccentric family’s shenanigans.

Jess soon learns her ‘voice’ belongs to Ah Ma, her late grandmother. She worshipped the Black Water Sister, a local deity. And when a business magnate dared to offend her goddess, Ah Ma swore revenge. Now she’s decided Jess will help, whether she wants to or not.

As Ah Ma blackmails Jess into compliance, Jess fights to retain control. But her irrepressible relative isn’t going to let a little thing like death stop her, when she can simply borrow Jess’s body to make mischief. As Jess is drawn ever deeper into a world of peril and family secrets, getting a job becomes the least of her worries.

‘This may be Zen Cho’s best work yet’ – Karen Lord, author of The Best of All Possible Worlds

‘A compelling and deftly written ghost story’ – Kate Elliott, author of Cold Magic

As Jessamyn packs for Malaysia, it’s not a good time to start hearing a bossy voice in her head. Broke, jobless and just graduated, she’s abandoning America to return ‘home’. But she last saw Malaysia as a toddler – and is completely unprepared for its ghosts, gods and her eccentric family’s shenanigans.

Jess soon learns her ‘voice’ belongs to Ah Ma, her late grandmother. She worshipped the Black Water Sister, a local deity. And when a business magnate dared to offend her goddess, Ah Ma swore revenge. Now she’s decided Jess will help, whether she wants to or not.

As Ah Ma blackmails Jess into compliance, Jess fights to retain control. But her irrepressible relative isn’t going to let a little thing like death stop her, when she can simply borrow Jess’s body to make mischief. As Jess is drawn ever deeper into a world of peril and family secrets, getting a job becomes the least of her worries.

‘This may be Zen Cho’s best work yet’ – Karen Lord, author of The Best of All Possible Worlds

‘A compelling and deftly written ghost story’ – Kate Elliott, author of Cold Magic