On the advice of a five-dollar psychic, Tina Martin, a zany, overworked mother of two, quits her high-powered job and moves her family to Shanghai. Tina yearns for this new setting to bring her the zen-like inner peace she’s always heard about on infomercials. Instead, she becomes a totally exasperated fish out of water, doing wacky things like stealing the shoes of a shifty delivery man, … spraying local women with a bidet hose, and contemplating the murder of her new pet cricket. It takes the friendship of an elderly tai chi instructor, a hot Mandarin tutor, and several mah-jongg-tile-slinging expats to bring Tina closer to a culture she doesn’t understand, the dream job she never knew existed, and the self she has always sought. Fish Heads and Duck Skin will resonate with anyone who has ever wondered who they are, why they were put here, and how they ever lived before eating pan-fried pork buns.
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Tina Martin is trapped in the corporate rat race as chief breadwinner of her family which includes two young children and an unemployed husband. But when a two-bit fortune teller predicts that her life is about to change and she will be embarking on a journey, she seizes the opportunity when her husband tells her he has been offered a job in China. This is her chance to exchange her high stress life for a more simple, relaxed one. So she, her husband, and their two children move to Shanghai. But navigating through such an exotically different culture especially when you don’t know the language has it’s own stressful challenges. Lindsey Salatka takes the reader on Tina’s journey of self-discovery through this daunting land, and she tells the story with a David Sedaris-like humor. I can’t remember when I laughed so much while reading a book. This is definitely worth the read.
This is my kind of book, and it was a joy to read. Having travelled overseas for my husband’s work, with two small children in tow, I found this book completely relatable.
The main character, Tina, leaves her high-powered job to travel to Shanghai with her husband, only to find her new world is not as easy and stress free as she had hoped it would be. What ensues is a raw, hilarious, and often painful account, as she navigates the culture shock of her new and alien life. This is a funny, engaging, emotion and heart-warming read about growth and self-discovery. l loved it.
Who hasn’t wanted to run off to a foreign land to escape life’s familiar burdens? In “Fish Heads and Duck Skin,” the overworked, under-satisfied protagonist Tina does just that. Hilarity ensues. It’s no surprise that her anxieties and preconceptions move halfway across the world with her. The reader cheers and chuckles throughout this fast-paced, well-written book as Tina struggles to adapt, accept, and discover who she is. Enjoy the fun and the wise cultural, human lessons.
Shanghai through the eyes of an American perfectionist.
This can’t go well, and it doesn’t—this is a what-else-can-go-wrong expat adventure with lots of hard lessons for Tina, the high-strung American perfectionist who believes she can bend China’s will to her own. While all the other characters in the book try and make things easier for her, only one manages to teach her what she needs to know, despite herself. The story is well told—we are immersed in Tina’s challenges and feel them with her—and the writing is delicious, with illuminating metaphors on every page. I look forward to more from this writer!
Such a delightful read. The main character Tina was so relatable and jumping into her life and facing her challenges was believable. It’s warm and funny and sometimes made me squirm, but very well written and immensely enjoyable. Get it!
A BOOK YOU WILL WANT TO READ!
I love a character like Tina, messed up, yet relatable and doing something like moving to Shanghai when you don’t know the culture is fascinating. This book is funny, warm sometimes frustrating, but always well written and fantastic. I love when you see growth in a character, and you definitely see that here. This is a fun, must read that you will enjoy immensely.
I wanted to like this one more than I ended up. It wasn’t a badly written book, and there were plenty of “laugh out loud” moments. However, I just never warmed up to Tina. I also had an issue with the fact this is a work of fiction, but read more like a memoir. It made reading it a bit discombobulating.
**ARC Via NetGalley**
Motherhood and family life are always crazy under the best of circumstances. Lindsey Salatka’s new novel underscores the humor through the viewpoint of Tina Martin, and her life with her husband, Daniel, and their two very young children (four-year-old Piper and seven-month Lila.) Tina willingly leaves her frenetic marketing and sales job behind in San Diego to move to Shanghai: partly to overcome exhaustion and partly to jump-start her sputtering marriage.
Readers who enjoy books about culture shock and the expat experience will empathize with Tina’s difficulties in adjusting to the adrenaline hyperactivity of Shanghai and its startling blend of the ultra-modern with the ultra-traditional.
The humor mainly comes from the sisterhood of expats that Tina befriends as well as from her four-year-old, Piper, who is open to all cultural experiences that perplex, even repulse, her mother. The title, “Fish Heads and Duck Skin”, refers to Piper’s newfound love of these Chinese delicacies which unnerves her mother. Anyone who has experienced the sense of disorientation and dislocation from living in another country, understands how much you learn about yourself and your home country only when you leave. And “Fish Heads and Duck Skin” is a wonderful humorous trip to a faraway place both physical and psychological. Laugh-out loud wacky and vivid!
This was a riveting read that I thoroughly enjoyed. My interest in this book was first captured by its title, but what I found within the pages of this book and in Lindsey’s writing was truly a well-written heartwarming and breathtaking novel that takes the reader to a journey of self discovery through Shanghai.
As an AAPI woman from the culture, I cannot help but laugh and empathize with the story because it is heartbreakingly true. But in the heart of the story is appreciating how despite our cultural differences, we are more alike that different, and Lindsey Salatka captured the essence of the story in a beautiful way.
I really loved this book!
As a writer and reader of mostly travel memoirs, I had to keep reminding myself that this book about traveling to China with two small children in tow was fiction. It so resembled my life in Singapore with my two children. The author had to have experienced life in China at some point (but maybe not??) because her descriptions, stories, and experiences sounded very realistic.
At first, I wasn’t sure this was the book for me. For one thing, I don’t read a lot of fiction, and the author’s humor rubbed me the wrong way. I continued, though, as I looked forward to the part about moving to Shanghai. It didn’t disappoint, especially because I related to so much of the story. Salatka doesn’t hold back writing about her relationship with her kids and husband, the difficulty in making friends with other expats, and the culture and the many things she had to get used to while living there. Her tale about the washing machine, delivery man, and his shoes was a highlight.
Whether you like to read fiction or travel memoirs readers will enjoy this fast-paced and humorous book.
I love Fish Heads and Duck Skin for so many reasons. The story opens in Shanghai, China where Tina and her girls are having an experience in a marketplace toilet. I saw it and smelled it and laughed at it. From that moment forward, I loved the realness of Tina and Daniel’s relationship, and how much they cared for each other through all the messes. I loved how Lindsey Salatka captured her insane life before Shanghai in so many little details, and then captured her insane life once she arrived. I loved her relationship with sweet Mr. Han and her zany girlfriends. I loved Tina’s character arc as she tried to find inner peace and embrace her superpower. There was a lot of love going on for me. You will not regret choosing this book.