“Postman takes on an ambitious scope: recounting multiple generations of her ancestors’ immigration to America, their successes and losses, and bravely confronting her mother’s suicide in the process. She skillfully weaves narration throughout the book and handles difficult topics with sensitivity and grace.” —Chris Lu, former U.S. Ambassador, Deputy Secretary of Labor, White House Cabinet Secretary

“Madelyn Postman’s beautiful book traces the roots of her Chinese American family in a quest to understand a painful secret she’s borne since before she can remember. Her writing about love, family and identity is unique, unvarnished and deeply moving.” —Quil Lawrence, NPR Correspondent and author of Invisible Nation (Walker Books, 2009)

“Staring into the Sun is a prismatic exploration of those intergenerational forces that invisibly infiltrate our lives and shape who we become. In this genealogical voyage spurred by loss, readers meet an ensemble cast of characters from different times, from different cultural milieus, all of whom point the way back home, to a rediscovery of family and self. An ambitious work of introspection that evocatively links biography with history.” —M. F. Alvarez, PhD, author of The Paradox of Suicide and Creativity: Authentications of Human Existence (Lexington Books, 2020) and Unraveling: An Autoethnography of Suicide and Renewal (Routledge, 2023)

US book tour in May

• New York
• Reno, NV
• Locke, CA
• San Francisco Bay Area

UK book tour in May

• London

Press coverage

• Exeter Bulletin (alumni magazine of Phillips Exeter Academy)
• AAPI reading lists to be confirmed
• Podcast interviews to be confirmed