With her debut novelThe Kiss Quotient, Helen Hoang quickly established herself as an author to watch.
Now the author is back with an equally personal tale inThe Bride Test.
Again, Hoang drew on her personal experiences and thoughts on the complicated emotionality of autism.
Credit: Eric Kieu; Penguin
That they are kind.
That they have feelings.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The story of how Stella helped you make discoveries about yourself is so remarkable.
At least from what Ive seen.
You created such a rich world inThe Kiss Quotient.
That we dont feel emotions and we cant experience empathy.
That made me really angry.
Because its not true.
It might look true sometimes.
But its really not.
A lot of the autistic people Ive interacted with are the kindest, most considerate people I know.
Khai was born from that feeling of injustice.
When I was younger, I was told I have a stone heart.
You write so beautifully of how your mom gave birth to Esmes story in the authors note.
How she escaped from Vietnam by getting on the boats and the bombs were falling and everyone was terrified.
There was a long trip and everyone was packed like sardines.
I heard that story a lot.
But theres an entire other side to her story.
Escaping from Vietnam is a huge.
Thats something that she never spoke to me about.
I think she did that because she was protecting me.
She wanted me to stay innocent.
A lot of Esmes story came directly from conversations with your mom?A lot of them.
Not entirely, because it did have to modernize.
I know you recently lost your mom.
The cover [is] yellow and red.
Im really proud to have those colors on the cover because theyre deeply Vietnamese.
Looking at the book reminds me of her.
It reminds me of how strong she was and how much she loved all of her kids.
It brings me back to those conversations I had with her while I was drafting the book.
The first time someone offered her breakfast cereal, and she had no idea what it was.
I can remember all that when I look at this book.
For so many,The Kiss Quotientgave readers empathetic insight into what its like for someone on the spectrum.
I honestly did my best.
But I admit that Im constrained by my lack of personal experience because Im not an immigrant.
I felt it very keenly.
I would love to see new voices rise and share these stories from a more authentic perspective.
And then there wasthe Muslim banand all these things.
I wrote this book with a fire in my heart.
I wanted badly to humanize immigrants.
I know that its a controversial topic, that people are coming into the country illegally.
They will give visas to people with certain qualifications skills, education, or if theyre very wealthy.
When you judge a person based on those criteria, its guaranteed youre going to miss out.
How do you feel about the fact that your work has sort of transcended genre in a sense?
Im proud if I can introduce people to romance.
But mostly Im just grateful when anyone reads my books.
We get more glimpses of fan-favorite character Quan here hes next, right?Yes.
Its calledThe Heart Principle.
It is kind of a cross between a gender-swappedSabrinaandSay Anything.
You often describedThe Kiss Quotientas a reversePretty Woman.
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