Exploring who you are takes a lot of courage. Michelle See-Tho’s first book Jade and Emerald is a joyous young adult novel and celebration of identity.
Set in the early 90’s, Lei Lin Wen explores a new coveted friendship, uncovering the secrets of the past to discover who she’s meant to be. This beautifully written story is for all teenagers experiencing the joys and pains of growing up, of accepting who you are and where you come from.
Join us at Woollahra Library for a forty-five minute author talk, followed by a 15-minute Q&A and book signing with Michelle."
About the author:
Michelle See-Tho is a freelance writer and copywriter. She has had articles, stories published in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, Overland, and The Big Issue Fiction Edition. Jade and Emerald, her first novel, won the 2023 Penguin Literary Prize.About the book:Lei Ling Wen is lonely. Bored of her demanding after-school schedule of tuition, study and violin lessons, she struggles to see eye to eye with her strict Chinese-Malaysian mother. When Lei Ling is befriended by elegant, worldly socialite Gigi Nu, she is enchanted by the realm of luxury and freedom that suddenly opens up to her. Gigi encourages Lei Ling to flout her routines and treats her to designer products and expensive meals, and soon Lei Ling finds herself caught between two lives, and increasingly at odds with her exasperated mother. Then tragedy strikes, and Lei Ling discovers long-held secrets that lead her to question everything she thought she knew about the two central women in her life, and the friendship she’d held at the heart of it.