Years of the Ox & Tiger

The continuing saga of Charlie Birch, an American expat and self-described "washout," reinventing himself in Asia. Picking up where Book 1 (Year of the Rat) left off, Charlie and his idiosyncratic Taiwanese Godfather resume their travels in China, Thailand, and the Philippines, while navigating the "sea of trouble" in Taiwan. Years of the Ox & Tiger is a gritty travel memoir inspired by Charlie's early "midlife crisis" which started when he 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. Christian Adams weaves an addictive storyline with conversational prose.