Stir Bedside Table: Vancouver novelist Janie Chang

The author of The Porcelain Moon and other books is on an ancient-myths streak

Stir Bedside Table is a column where Stir connects with local artists and creatives to hear about some of their favourite reads.

Canadian Independent Booksellers Association presents Canadian Independent Bookstore Day on April 29

The reader:

Janie Chang

What’s your story?

I write novels inspired by Chinese history and family tales of ancestors who encountered dragons, ghosts, and immortals. I live on the beautiful Sunshine Coast of British Columbia with my husband and Minnie the rescue cat.

This year has been busy, with the February launch of my fourth novel, The Porcelain Moon: A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love, then finishing work on The Phoenix Crown, a novel co-authored with my friend Kate Quinn that releases in September 2023. I’m now starting work on The Fourth Princess, a Gothic novel set in pre-war Shanghai and that’s scheduled to release in 2025.

What's on your bedside table right now?

I just finished reading Homecoming: A Novel by Kate Morton, started Clytemnestra: A Novel by Costanza Casati, and have Stone Blind: A Novel by Natalie Haynes lined up. I’m on a bit of a retelling of ancient myths streak, ever since reading Ithaca by Claire North.

The book that changed your life?

Ha ha. Most books are life-changing when you read them at an impressionable age. Probably Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, when I was nine years old. It was the first time I sensed that powerful emotions could exist on a printed page. Until then, books were just stories.

Most inspiring biography or autobiography?

The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.

Best beach-read?

Fun mysteries, such as the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley.

Working title of your autobiography?

Not Enough Words.

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