Old Town Books Book(s) Club: Days of Distraction by Alexandra Chang

About the Event:

Old Town Book(s) Club is free and open to the public; RSVP is appreciated. While buying the book at OTB is not required to attend, we greatly appreciate it - it helps keep our free literary programming sustainable!

About the Book:

The plan is to leave. As for how, when, to where, and even why—she doesn’t know yet. So begins a journey for the twenty-four-year-old narrator of Days of Distraction. As a staff writer at a prestigious tech publication, she reports on the achievements of smug Silicon Valley billionaires and start-up bros while her own request for a raise gets bumped from manager to manager. And when her longtime boyfriend, J, decides to move to a quiet upstate New York town for grad school, she sees an excuse to cut and run.

Moving is supposed to be a grand gesture of her commitment to J and a way to reshape her sense of self. But in the process, she finds herself facing misgivings about her role in an interracial relationship. Captivated by the stories of her ancestors and other Asian Americans in history, she must confront a question at the core of her identity: What does it mean to exist in a society that does not notice or understand you?

About the Author:

Alexandra Chang’s debut novel is Days of Distraction. She’s from Northern California, and currently lives in Ithaca, NY with her husband, and their dog and cat.