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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: — Eastward Ho
Chapter 3: — Arrival, Not Welcome
Chapter 4: — Two Weeks, Then the Street
Chapter 5: — Lisbet, the Promise, the Wound
Chapter 6: — The Locked Room Opens
Chapter 7: — Saltbox, Footbath, and the Deal
Chapter 8: — The Briefcase, the Betrayal, the Collapse
Chapter 9: — The Deal in the Briefcase
Chapter 10: — The Old Family Home
Description
The Chinese Groove follows Zheng Xue Li—nicknamed “Shelley”—as he leaves Gejiu, Yunnan, for San Francisco in 2015, convinced America will turn him into a cool guy, a poet, and a winner. Instead, he lands in a modest household full of grief: Ted and Aviva Cheng, whose son Eli died years earlier, and whose family fractures are held together by politeness, silence, and unspoken obligation.
As Shelley scrambles for housing, food, and dignity, he learns that survival in America requires both hustle and emotional fluency. He becomes entangled with Ted’s estranged father Henry, local politics, and a found-family ecosystem of friends and strangers. Across loss, longing, and betrayal, Shelley keeps chasing three “achievables”—Family, Love, Fortune—until he finally understands what each one really costs.
Who Should Listen
- Listeners who enjoy immigrant coming-of-age stories with humor, heartbreak, and sharp social observation.
- Fans of character-driven literary fiction about family estrangement, grief, and found community.
- Readers interested in contemporary San Francisco—housing precarity, identity, and the quiet deals people make to survive.