jennifer tseng
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Award-winning poet Jennifer Tseng's debut novel 
Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness is the tale of one
​book-loving woman on the verge, and at last, at play.
​
​"A sizzling fuse of a novel, with an explosion bigger and
better than anything you can imagine." 

​      -Sara Levine, author of Treasure Island!!!
​

Buy Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness from Bookshop
Santa Cruz
, Brookline Booksmith, Bookculture, Bunch of
Grapes Bookstore
, Elliott Bay Book Company, Greenlight Bookstore, Harvard Book
Store, Hatchards, Papercuts J.P.,
Pegasus Books, 
Politics & Prose, Strand, The Vermont Book Shop, Women & Children First or from another fine
​independent bookstore somewhere in the world.


Read an excerpt, at the 
Asian American Writers' Workshop. 
Praise for Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness​...

      "It is impossible to resist the seductive pull
      of Tseng's novel, which dares to imagine with a
      radical degree of attention the force of a 41-
      year-old woman's desire. I found myself happily
      in thrall to the gorgeous language and bold vision
      of this ravishing book.”

-Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, author of Ms. Hempel Chronicles

      “Jennifer Tseng delivers an elegant exploration
      of passion and its consequences while casting her
      observant eye on motherhood, memory, exile, and
      female friendship. Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness
      is carnal, witty, and slyly crafted.”

-Sara Levine, author of Treasure Island!!!

      "Mayumi’s trespasses and thrills are so deeply
      imagined
 that I lived her affair with her, cheering
      her even as I knew I would drown with her in her
      ecstasy. This book’s fierce physicality glitters
      beneath the surface of every heady sentence.”

-Susanna Daniel, author of Stiltsville and Sea Creatures

      "A sense of longing suffuses Tseng's sexy…debut
      novel about a 41-year-old librarian [Mayumi Saito]
      who embarks on an affair with a shy, handsome high
      school student. Aware of the dangers and abashed at
      the Nabokov-ian overtones, Mayumi nevertheless handily
      introduces the young man, whom she never names, to the
      pleasures of sex and literature. Tseng explores time
      and place, isolation and connection, and veers more
      toward the lyrical than the lurid.”

-Kirkus Reviews

      "This correlation of the joys of reading with other
      sensual pleasures – the natural world, eating, physical
      intimacy – suffuses Jennifer Tseng’s debut novel Mayumi
      and the Sea of Happiness
, a book that somehow manages
      to feel at once voluptuous and spare."

-The Island Review

      "If Ferrante’s novels succeed in bringing more
      attention to the others from her U.S. publisher,
      Europa Editions, I’ll be delighted. This debut novel
      by an established poet is one example of why. Tseng’s
      tale of a love affair between a 41-year-old woman and
      the son of her friend could be trite, but is
      incredibly moving, lyrical and poignant." 

-The Fiscal Times

      "A provocative novel well worth adding to your
      summer packing list."

-Elle Magazine

      "Tseng's lyrical prose turns a story that could
      be lurid into a meditation on the power of pleasure
      to transform our lives."

-Huffington Post

      "Tseng does the cross-generational relationship
      absolutely beautifully. Mayumi and the Sea of
      Happiness
 is an accomplished novel of obsession,
      aloneness, fulfillment and loss; it is also about
      motherhood, friendship and generosity. And best
      of all, it is screamingly funny a lot of the time
      ...the novel is stunning and the dénouement perfect.
      If you like your narrators wordy, nerdy, funny and
      lovable, and your sex scenes uncompromising,
      this is the book for you."

-Nuala O'Connor, author of Joy Ride to Jupiter

      "Drenched in literature, rich with contemplation,
      Tseng’s first novel is wryly observant,
      compulsively readable and dangerously passionate.
      Mayumi is a 41-year old small town librarian, married,
      a mother, and stuck in the mundane, when she falls
      inexplicably in love with a young man. What follows
      is a beautifully written meditative romp through
      the seasons of lust, obsession and love. As real
      as it is metaphorical, Tseng writes on many levels,
      making for a most complex and satisfying read."

-Bookshop Santa Cruz

      "Like Nabokov’s iconic Lolita, to which Mayumi 
      tips its hat, the unlikely affair is consummated
      (This is only a minimal spoiler, as it occurs early
      on). The lovers find a seasonally abandoned cabin
      by a waterfall, and they throw themselves into
      numerous trysts. As with Lolita, wherein the idea
      of a grownup luring a minor into sex is repellent
      and illegal, somehow this storyline, in the hands
      of this masterful writer, works
."

-MV Times

      "Those expecting a typical crime and punishment
      story, or those who need to see the scales balanced
      after every transgression, will likely be unsettled
      by Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness. But those who
      enjoy existential examinations of transgression will
      find so much to enjoy here. This is a confession
      that reads like an exultation
, and Mayumi’s gleeful
      admissions will likely keep the reader turning pages
      at the kind of speed that inspires papercuts."

-Seattle Review of Books

      "To this book’s great credit, the story of the
      affair doesn’t unreel in any predictable ways.
      Though as erotically charged as you might expect,
      this story seems to be as much about isolation and
      what we do—or don’t do—to overcome it as it is
      about fulfilling desires."

-Small Press Picks 

      "The novel is compelling and beautifully written.
      Once I started reading, it was difficult to stop.
      Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness is about a woman
      risking everything for pleasure, but it’s also
      about the consolation of other pleasures, such as
      great books and unexpected friendship." 

-Tufts Now

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    • Poems
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