A deeply moving and often hilarious novelfollowing a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way,catapulting her into fame and influence justas shes finally beginning to reckonwith her complicated past

Lola Treasure Gold cant figure out her life. Shes broke, unemployed, and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worseunspeakably worseone of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a Very Viral Video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru.

With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celistill alive, thank godLola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she cant seem to find hers: shes grieving; shes accused of using the notoriety of her friends death to fuel her rise; and shes full of questions about the fate of her mother, who came to America pregnant, fleeing Chinas one-child policy, got deported when Lola was eight, and now has totally disappeared.

Driven by an exuberant, searching spirit, Jade Changs kaleidoscopic new novel is a deep examination of the ways we commodify belief, the power and precarityof fame, and the delicious terror of being truly seen.What a Time to Be Aliveasks if we can look honestly at the world and still love it;the answer is a brilliant, resoundingyes.