Year of the Rat

Sex, drugs, international travel and adventure. A fresh take on the expatriate experience. A 40-year-old American washout in exile. A lecherous and wealthy Taiwanese boss. A neurotic personal assistant and a cast of oddball supporting characters. Year of the Rat is the first book in the Lunar New Years series, the gritty, quasi-fictional travel memoir of Charlie Birch, a man inspired by an early "midlife crisis" who left his dead-end life in San Francisco for capricious and sometimes sordid explorations in Asia. One part boozy travelogue, one part sleazy comedic melodrama, Charlie forges an uncommon yet brutally honest path, stumbling his way into the long-term expat lifestyle, with frequent forays into the dark underbelly of Asian society.