Bestselling novelist Amy Tan shares the story of how she escaped the curses ofher past to make a future ofher own．She takes US on a journey from her childhood of both tragedy and comedy to the present day and her arrival as one of the world’s best—loved novelists．Whether recalling arguments with her mother in suburban California or introducing US to the ghosts that inhabit her computer，The Opposite ofFate presents a refreshing meditation on the choices，charms，freedoms，and luck that affect US a11．

  A Note to the Reader 

FATE AND FAITH

  The CliffsNotes Version of My Life

  How We Knew

  A Question of Fate 

  Faith

CHANGING THE PAST

  Last Week 

  My Grandmother's Choice

  Thinly Disguised Memoir

  Persona Errata 

  Scent 

AMERICAN CIRCUMSTANCES

AND CHINESE CHARACTER

Fish Cheeks

Dangerous Advice 

Midlife Confidential 

Arrival Banquet 

Joy Luck and Hollywood 

STRONG WINDS,

STRONG  INFLUENCES

What She Meant 

Confessions 

Pretty Beyond Belief

The Most Hateful Words

My Love Affair with Vladimir Nabokov 

LUCK,  CHANCE,

AND A CHARMED LIFE

Inferior Decorating

Room with a View, New Kitchen, and Ghosts 

Retreat to Reality 

My Hair, My Face, My Nails

The Ghosts of My Imagination

A  CHOICE  OF  WORD'S

What the Library Means to Me 

Mother Tongue

The Language of Discretion 

Five Writing Tips

Required Reading and Other Dangerous Subjects 

Angst and the Second Book 

The Best Stories

HOPE

What I Would Remember

To Complain Is American 

The Opposite of Fate