Family Trust: A Novel

When Huang family patriarch Stanley receives a harrowing diagnosis from his doctor, his family is forced to confront the reality that he has very little time left. His immediate family accepts the news with varying degrees of grief. Stanley’s children, Fred and Kate, can’t fully forgive his transgressions from their childhood. Stanley’s ex-wife, Linda, still resents how badly he handled the money she made for them when they were married. And Stanley’s much younger second wife, Mary, accepts that caring for an elderly man is exactly what she signed up for–as long as a windfall is on the other side. But no one knows exactly how much Stanley is worth, or the contents of his will. They can’t say it outright to each other, but each wonders obsessively: How much will I get when Stanley is gone?

Fred’s disastrous personal and professional choices, Kate’s marital implosion, and Linda’s unexpected connection with an internet love interest heighten their fixation on Stanley’s will, which comes to represent a measure of freedom–if any money exists at all. Set in a Silicon Valley that is as monstrous and absurd as it is true to life, Family Trust examines the nature of family loyalty and obligation as well as the choices that set lives on seemingly irreversible courses.