About the Book

“The perfect book for someone who needs to believe big dreams can come true.” —Amy Cohen, New York Times–bestselling author of The Late Bloomer’s Revolution

The book The Good Shufu: Finding Love, Self, & Home on the Far Side of the World is a true story of cross-cultural and multilingual love, marriage, and mixups. Published by Penguin Random House’s Putnam imprint in 2015, the book has been named a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection, a National Geographic “great new read,” and one of Pop Sugar’s best books of 2015.

It’s a true story about finding love, hope, and home in the places we always swore we’d never go, and about what we both gain and lose when we surrender our plans, goals, and even homes for that age-old cliche, love. Rather than an ordinary travel memoir, this is a book about building a real life in a language you don’t speak and a land you can barely navigate, and yet somehow finding a truer sense of home and meaning than ever before.

Kirkus Reviews calls the book “a heartfelt and moving tale, coupling insights into two remarkably different cultures with a love story that, as much as any true love story can, delivers a happy ending.”

Additional recent praise includes:

“A thoughtful, involving examination of what happens when a thoroughly American woman says “I do” not just to a man, but to a new culture, country, and way of life. Filled with fascinating tidbits about Japan’s quirks and customs, this debut is as informative as it is entertaining.” —Sarah Pekkanen, internationally bestselling author of Catching Air

“From Boston to Osaka, Tracy Slater writes about the intersection of romance and culture shock with great sensitivity. The Good Shufu is a story about how people communicate and love each other in unexpected ways and places, a fish-out-of-water tale that illustrates the ever-expanding definition of family.”—Ann Mah, author of Mastering the Art of French Eating

“Tracy Slater is one of those great women who refused to give up when so many people said she should. (She’s my kind of woman.) Honest, brave, and moving, this is the perfect book for someone who needs to believe big dreams can come true.” —Amy Cohen, New York Times–bestselling author of The Late Bloomer’s Revolution

“Tracy Slater’s charming The Good Shufu reminded me of Eat, Pray, Love — rewritten by Woody Allen. With equal parts humor and heart, Slater narrates her tale of falling in love with a Japanese man and, then, Japan itself. Slater’s real triumph is her ability to probe both inward and outward, to chronicle both the ways in which Japan transformed her—emotionally, politically, even physically—and her evolving take on Japan itself. Brave, unabashed, and also just plain old fun.”—Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year

“Falling in love can be dizzying, dazzling, and disorienting all at once, but Tracy Slater took things one step farther when she fell in love with a Japanese businessman–whose English was on par with her Japanese–and upended her life as an academic in Boston to become a housewife in Osaka, Japan. Our readers are in love with this delightful, deft memoir about new beginnings and making one’s home.” — Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection Committee

The Good Shufu is now available for order at all major sellers in both hardcover and ebook!