You Can’t Stay Here Forever

Lin debuts with the thoughtful if uneven story of a 29-year-old lawyer’s search for meaning after the death of her husband. Ellie Huang’s seemingly perfect world is shattered after her husband, Ian, dies in a car accident. What’s more, Ellie discovers during the funeral that Ian had been cheating on her. With an unexpectedly large life insurance payout in hand, Ellie flees to a posh hotel in the south of France, accompanied by longtime friend Mable Chou. The women spend their days swathed in luxury and befriend a couple, Fauna and Robbie. Ellie is particularly drawn to the latter—his “genuine warmth” makes her feel like she’s talking to a therapist. Meanwhile, Ellie grapples with the “garden-variety racism” she’s dealt with at her firm, where a senior partner repeatedly confuses her with another Asian woman, as well as microaggressions from others and conflicted feelings about her Asian immigrant mother. Some of Ellie’s musings are insightful (worse than the racism, for Ellie, is that the partner doesn’t know her), though others are a bit rote (“I like feeling as if other people are making my choices for me,” she tells Fauna), and despite some drama from her attraction to Robbie, the plot fizzles. Nevertheless, Lin piles on the charm with Ellie and Mable’s inside jokes and descriptions of the decadent setting. There’s some fun to be had, but it’s fleeting. Agent: Elizabeth Bewley, Sterling Lord Literistic. (June)