Asian-American Ed Lin lives the Great American Dream

Ed Lin was born in New York City and raised in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, where his parents, immigrants from Taiwan and the mainland, owned small hotels. A financial journalist who has been described as the voice of a new generation of Chinese-Americans, Lin is the author of five novels, including a crime series set in New York's Chinatown. His 2002 debut novel, Waylaid , based on his childhood, was adapted into a film, The Motel (2006). Lin's latest novel, Ghost Month , is a murder mystery about a young night-market foodstall owner in Taipei who tries to find out who killed his high school girlfriend. As in the crime novels of one of his literary mentors, Raymond Chandler, Lin's prose is frequently image-laden. Ghost Month is also an excellent introduction to Taipei's food culture - readers are likely to head to the nearest noodle shop after they're finished the book. Lin spoke to about his writing life and what it was like growing up in the United States.