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AudioBook information:
Author: Lucy Tan
Narrated by: Justin Chien
Release date: November 17, 2026
Audiobook Duration: 10 h 24 min

Summary: “A stunning story of friendship and family, love and belonging . . . I absolutely adored it.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark

When two young men meet during a tech internship, it sparks an intense friendship—and even more intense competition—in this sweeping novel of privilege, identity, and ambition from the acclaimed author of What We Were Promised.

Jack Chen, the oldest son of caterers from Queens, is an expert at studying the rich from afar. When he finagles his way into a prestigious internship at tech giant K.O. Systems, he’s prepared to fake everything: his credentials, his confidence, even his past. What he isn’t prepared for is his officemate, Jack Owens, the depressed son of the company’s billionaire founder, who’s only there for a summer reprieve from his father’s scrutiny at the family vacation house.

Their connection is immediate, built on mutual admiration. Chen sees in Owens the advantages he’s been denied; Owens sees in Chen someone free of the pain he’s been taught to hide. Owens, Chen, and Chen’s girlfriend quickly become close friends, but by summer’s end the three can no longer outrun the lies they’ve told themselves and each other. As pressures build throughout the next few years, the two Jacks circle each other like opponents in their favorite board game, Go, each chasing the life the other was born into, from career to family to lovers. But the path to success and matters of the heart can test even the closest of friendships—and not all of them survive.

Nostalgic, heart-wrenching, and propulsive, Tiger’s Mouth is a nuanced portrait of complex friendship, family dynamics, and love in its most unexpected forms.

Reviews:

“A stunning story of friendship and family, love and belonging, Tiger’s Mouth takes a bruising and bittersweet look at identity and our changing perception of success and failure. I absolutely adored it.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of All the Colors of the Dark

“Tiger’s Mouth is a remarkable achievement: a novel whose deep attention to character is equaled by its propulsive plotting and incisive social commentary. Lucy Tan pairs a Sally Rooney–like eye for psychological nuance with a thoughtful exploration of 2020s America, from racial inequity to the paradoxes of healthcare and technology. The result is a wise, clear-eyed, and compassionate work of art.”—Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

“Tiger’s Mouth is the rare page-turner that is also compassionate, wise, and finely observed. Through a cast of characters who come to feel as familiar as family, Lucy Tan asks questions about the costs of power and privilege, friendship across class, and seemingly unalterable societal strictures. This is a novel—assured, propulsive, insightful—about what we inherit and what we create for ourselves, and the relationships that might transcend it all.”—Rachel Khong, internationally bestselling author of Real Americans

“Tiger’s Mouth vividly captures the tumultuous beauty of growing up and growing into oneself, as ‘the Jacks’ tangle with each other, with the past, with a changing world, and with the peril of truly being seen. I loved this dazzling, incisive, and tender story of friendship.”—Rebecca Kauffman, award-winning author of The Gunners and The House on Fripp Island

“This is a thrilling story about ambition and friendship that left me breathless. Chen and Owens are at once familiar and unlike any characters I’ve ever met, their decades-long dance between artifice and vulnerability slowly revealing the very nature of intimacy itself. Tiger’s Mouth dazzled me.”—Emma Brodie, New York Times bestselling author of Into the Blue

“Two tech interns from different backgrounds become friends and rivals in the sharp-edged sophomore novel from Tan. . . . Tan brings the two friends to vivid life, showing how they define themselves in the other’s image.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Lucy Tan’s compelling sophomore novel expertly examines class, privilege, and family duty through the unlikely relationship between two Jacks from wholly different worlds.”—Shelf Awareness

“Tan’s brilliant second novel explores class, ambition, and self-invention within New York City’s tech industry. . . . With its complex friendships and sharp observations, Tiger’s Mouth is a thoughtful portrait of the ways people reinvent themselves to find belonging—and the costs of doing so.”—Booklist, starred review

“Tan continues the success she achieved with her debut, What We Were Promised, in this beautifully written, well-paced novel.”—Library Journal

“A thoughtful and gratifying novel, suggesting class may be the most meaningful barrier to friendship.”—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Lucy Tan is the author of What We Were Promised, which was a Barnes and Noble Discover Pick, longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and named a best book of the year by The Washington Post. Tan holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was winner of the August Derleth Prize. A recipient of support from Kundiman and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, Tan has published in journals such as American Short Fiction, McSweeney’s, and Ploughshares. She currently lives and writes in Seattle, where she is also a bookseller at Secret Garden Books.