Mathey Girls: A Novel

Written by Melody Chu

Narrated by Betty Chu

A heartfelt, moving novel about a Chinese American woman coming to terms with the evolving nature of family, friendship, and grief after the loss of her best friend.

On the outside, Esther Hsu looks like the proverbial second-generation immigrant success story, an Ivy League grad taking a well-earned break from her lucrative consulting career. However, she sees herself differently: almost forty, jobless, aimless, alone. She's an imposter hiding her failure from everyone, including her oldest group of friends—the Mathey Girls, named after their old Princeton dorm.

When fellow Mathey Girl Claire dies in childbirth, Esther steps in to support Claire's grief-stricken husband by caring for his nine-year-old daughter Hannah for the summer. While this responsibility gives Esther a renewed sense of purpose, it also brings up a loss from her childhood that she never truly got over. In a summer of second chances, including a new job opportunity and a new romance, Esther must rise above the past and her self-doubt to forge a path forward for both herself and Hannah.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Redleaves Books
• Release date: Nov 29, 2025
• ISBN: 9798998774812