Fiction – Literary – Women – Friendship – Asian American & Pacific Islander

RELEASE DATE: 9/30/2025 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER’S WAREHOUSE)

A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as shes finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past

Lola Treasure Gold cant figure out her life. Shes broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worseunspeakably worseone of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a Very Viral Video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.

With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celistill alive, thank godLola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she cant seem to find hers: shes grieving; shes accused of using the notoriety of her friends death to fuel her rise; and shes full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing Chinas one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.

Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Changs kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarity of fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen. What a Time to Be Alive asks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it; the answer is a brilliant, resounding yes.

AUTHOR BIO:

Jade Chang‘s debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World, won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and has been published in a dozen countries. Her journalism and essays have recently appeared in The Best American Food Writing, and in theNew York TimesandLos Angeles Timesmagazines. She also writes for film and TV. She lives in Los Angeles.

“Lola Treasure Gold, the irrepressible heroine ofWhat A Time to Be Alive, lives up to her name, and then some. Traumatized by a friend’s senseless death, Lola trips through life attempting to grieve with authenticity. In the process, she becomes an accidental influencer, a lighting-rod guru, and a singular and hilarious guide through TED conferences, moon festivals, the underground LA music scene, online stans, hipster podcasts, debauched desert weekends, free love, familial love, and let’s not forget a rabbit named Aristotle. Jade Chang has created a wise and provocative heroine sure to get people talking.” —Maria Semple, author ofWhere’d You Go, BernadetteandToday Will Be Different

“What a Time to be Aliveis a sly, sexy work of art. Jade Chang has captured the true essence of Los Angeles, in all of its motley, messy beauty, with humor and heart. This is a novel that you will devour, and share with your friends, and soon want to devour again.” —Angela Flournoy, author ofThe WildernessandThe Turner House

“A generous satire of the spiritual wellness space that delivers true magic in the character of Lola Treasure Gold, a heroine so dazzling and bold and psychologically healthy that you will wind up rooting for her with your whole heart. I loved it.” —Rufi Thorpe, author ofMargot’s Got Money Troubles

“There is joy to be had in this world of distortions and faux profundity; there are pockets of depth even among the shallows; and what seems to be sleight of hand may yet reveal the truest glimpse of our upside-down world. Jade Chang, with deadly humor and immense talent, has written an absolute romp of a novel about our ever-stumbling quest for sublimity and grace. I laughed, I cringed, I held on tight.What a Time to Be Aliveis a triumph.” —Justin Torres, author ofBlackouts