In the delightful Pride and Preston Lin (Third State Books, March 19), Christina Hwang Dudley takes Jane Austen’s story and moves it to a Chinese restaurant in contemporary California. Does it work? Our starred review says that “in a world with so many Pride and Prejudice adaptations, a new one has to be truly special to stand out, and this one is.” The novel is one of our best fiction books of 2024; Dudley answered questions via email.

What was the original idea that started you working on the book?

Growing up Chinese American in the San Francisco Bay Area, the hierarchies I knew were based on which college you went to, what you studied, and what sort of job these things would land you. Preston Lin is basically a Chinese mom’s dream: Stanford Ph.D. student on a scientific career path, star athlete, from a “successful” family, speaks Chinese. If he’s the Darcy in this story, my Lizzy—Lissie—also had to rank “lower” in every category, her only weapons being wit and charm.

This is your first contemporary romance—was it very different than writing your previous Regency series?

Writing traditional Regency romances is like trying to build the Eiffel Tower by watching YouTube videos. Almost every single thing has to be looked up or double-checked, lest you fall into errors, anachronisms, or—the Third Horseman of the Apocalypse for Regency readers—Americanisms! Which means I write my historicals while chained to the online Oxford English Dictionary and dozens of reference books, and if the Wi-Fi goes out I’m dead, because how else can I figure out the closest hackney-coach stand to the Old Bailey? In contrast, writing Pride and Preston Lin was a more flowing process. Which is not to say I prefer one over the other, but I welcomed the change of pace.

What inspired you during the writing of the book? What were you reading, listening to, watching?

It would be more accurate to ask what didn’t inspire me because this book is such a kitchen sink of my life! Austen’s story frame is a given, but so much of Lissie’s world intersects with mine. I sent her to my high school; I gave her my lame Chinese skills; the family restaurant is one I went to a lot growing up. I even once got in a car crash outside of it because I ran a red light while thinking of their steamed char siu bao. And then there’s the Stanford world of my grad school days and the competitive youth swimming universe I inhabited for years while my kids swam. Even the “Netherfield Ball” scene draws on my own experience taking English country dance lessons!

Where and when did you write the book? Describe the scene, the time of day, the necessary accoutrements.

I do all my writing in my dining room, beginning before breakfast when the house is quiet. Across from me hang framed engravings of Italy in the 19th century and out the window I can gaze absently into the overgrown backyard. Since the gate fell down years ago in a windstorm, deer sometimes wander in, and the occasional chickadee flits through the rhododendrons. Really the only serpents in my little writing paradise are my phone, with its lurking social media, or my son coming downstairs, throwing open the refrigerator and sighing, “Why is there never anything to eat?”

What book or books published in 2024 were among your favorites?

I really loved Hampton Sides’ The Wide, Wide Sea because I’m a Royal Navy/Captain Cook/Polynesian history nut. Same goes for the Civil War and Erik Larson’s The Demon of Unrest. For fiction, I read the fifth installment in Anthony Horowitz’s delightful Hawthorne & Horowitz series, Close to Death. I don’t actually care about the mystery in mystery stories, I just like the characters, and Horowitz’s hilarious insertion of himself as the Watson to Hawthorne’s Sherlock is comedy genius.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.