Jean Kwok, author portrait
© Jean Kwok

Jean Kwok

Jean Kwok is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Dominion, The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation, and Mambo in Chinatown. Her books have been chosen by Read with Jenna’s TODAY show book club, Allurial, Goodreads Choice, CBS New York, Book of the Month, LibraryReads, and Indie Next, among others, and much of her work is in development for film and television. In between her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and her MFA from Columbia, she worked as a professional ballroom dancer. Her work has been published in more than twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. When she’s not writing she can be found line dancing, burning food, or snuggling with her cat Couscous. After two decades in the Netherlands, she’s returned to the New York area.

Books

Girl in Translation

What Students Will Be Reading: Campus Common Reading Roundup, 2026–27

With the fall semester in full swing, colleges and universities across the country have announced their Common Reading books for the 2026–27 academic year. We’ve compiled a list of over 250 programs and their title selections, detailed below. We will continue to update this listing to provide the most comprehensive record of programs available anywhere

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2027 Catalog for First-Year & Common Reading

We are delighted to present our new First-Year & Common Reading Catalog for 2027! From award-winning fiction, poetry, memoir, and biography to new books about the environment, current events, history, public health, science, social justice, student success, and technology, the titles presented in our common reading catalog will have students not only eagerly flipping through

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Videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference are now available

We’re pleased to share videos from the 2026 First-Year Experience® Conference. Whether you weren’t able to join us at the conference or would simply like to hear the talks again, please take a moment to view the clips below.   Penguin Random House Author Breakfast Monday, February 17th, 7:15 – 8:45 am PST   This

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