Meeting Luciano

A "funny [and] enchanting" novel about a Japanese-American mother and daughter—and a legendary Italian tenor (The New Yorker). Hanako Shimoda, recently divorced, is fixated on Luciano Pavarotti—and convinced that he will accept her invitation to dinner at her Westchester County home. And to prepare for the opera star's upcoming visit, she's hired a contractor to renovate the kitchen. Hanako's daughter, Emily, a fully assimilated American, is in a holding pattern at the moment. With no real career plan after college, she has gone back to work at her old summer job—waiting tables at the local Japanese steakhouse. Even worse than wearing a fake kimono and obi is that she's living at home with her mother. At first, her mom seems pretty much her old self: still reliving her Japanese childhood; still affecting the airs of a European sophisticate; still brewing espresso, cooking Italian, and singing arias from Rigoletto...