Women of Good Fortune

In her debut novel, Sophie Wan follows Rina, Jane, and Lulu, three women who have bonded over the fact that they are "sheng nu" or 'leftover women' a term for unmarried, often well-educated, women over the age of twenty-seven and therefore past the appropriate age for marriage. When Lulu, through a series of unexpected circumstances, finds herself engaged to Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor, the three friends realize this may be the opportunity for which they have been waiting. None of them is happy with their lives. They realize that Lulu’s marriage will be attended by the most elite, and wealthy, of Shanghai and they will all be bearing gifts and will be hoping to outshine others with their generosity, The wedding gifts would be more than enough for each woman to be able to pursue the life they really want. Over the ten months leading up to the wedding, they research, recruit, strategize, and execute their plan to steal the wedding gifts. Needless to say, a lot happened over the course of those ten months, and many of those developments directly impacted the women in ways they did not anticipate. Wan explores the motivations each woman has for undertaking the risk of the theft, and as the wedding date approaches, each comes to the realization that even if they are able to pull off the heist, there will still be considerable costs associated with their desires. In the end, Wan emphasizes that while we are often driven to extremes in the pursuit of what we want, we often ignore the fact that what we already have is infinitely more valuable. We just need to recognize it.