Ann Mah Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Ann Mah is a journalist and bestselling author that is best known for her novel “The Lost Vintage.” She calls herself an American travel and food writer who made her debut with the publishing of “Kitchen Chinese” in 2010.
She is also a regular contributor to some prestigious publications including the travel section of the New York Times and has also contributed to the likes of Vogue, the Washington Post, Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveller, and Washingtonian magazine among many others.
Since 2008, Ann has been living in Paris. Here she worked at the American Library of Paris as a Program Manager, where she was an organizer for the very popular “Evenings with an Author” series. When she became relatively successful with her writing, she stepped down from her 9-5 to concentrate on her writing career.

Over the years, she has worked for Viking Penguin in New York as an assistant editor and for a Beijing-based English language magazine as a staff writer. She was the winner of a culinary scholarship that sent her to study in Bologna, Italy.
She credits her husband’s work as a diplomat for the many exciting countries she gets to live in.

Just like many authors, Ann Mah always had the desire to become an author and used to read a lot when she was young. Fearing that she would get rickets sitting cramped in an unheated garret for years, her mother used to try her best to encourage her to do anything else.
When she graduated from college, she, for the most part, gave up the dream of becoming an author and for a time was employed at a New York-based publishing house. However, her work with a publishing house just shows that she never wanted to move too far from writers and books.

After she got married, her husband was sent to China as a diplomat and they got to live in Beijing, China. This meant that Ann had to give up her career as a book publisher. While she was terribly afraid at the time, the move was what allowed her to take the plunge and begin taking writing seriously.

Since she is an ethnic Chinese that grew up in California, she believed she knew everything about Chinese food but could not have been more wrong. Living in china, she was introduced to a range of dishes and this is how she got started writing her debut novel “Kitchen Chinese.”

In 2008, her husband was transferred to Paris which had always been her dream city. A lifelong Francophile, she could not have been more excited that her husband had managed to land the extremely coveted posting.

However, soon after arriving in Paris, Calvin her husband was transferred to Iraq and left Ann all alone in the City of Light. Instead of moping in the house, she got herself occupied learning about French food.

She used to attend all manner of wine tastings and went all over the cities and countryside of France eating all manner of French cuisine. It was at this time that she would pen what is perhaps her most popular work in “The Lost Vintage.”
Mah currently spends her time between Washington DC and Paris.

“The Lost Vintage” by Ann Mah has been called a meeting of “The Nightingale” and “Sweetbittter.” It tells the story of a woman that goes back home to Burgundy where she unexpectedly finds an unknown relative a lost diary and a family secret that dates back to the Second World War.

All Kate wants is to become a certified wine expert which means she has to pass the Master of Wine Examination which is known to be notoriously difficult.

Since the test is a few months away, she heads to Burgundy to spend some time at the family vineyard so that she can reconnect with Nico her cousin, and bolster her knowledge of Burgundian vintage. She hopes she can avoid Jean Luc her neighbor who had been her first love and is now a reputable vintner.

While she is helping Nico tidy up the vineyard house, they discover a hidden room behind a cellar that has a huge cache of old valuable wine, some Resistance pamphlets, and a cot.
With her curiosity piqued, she begins investigating and learns the facts of some very dark family secrets.

Ann Mah’s novel “Jacqueline in Paris” is set in 1949 where the lead has arrived to begin her junior studies. The twenty-year-old Jacqueline Bouvier is in a financially precarious position despite her social poise. She is also aware of the relentless pressure her mother has been putting on her to find a good match.

She ran away from New York and Vassar College with its rigid social circle so that she could explore Paris. It is not long before she finds herself in the world of jazz clubs and cafes, chateaux and champagne, and avant-garde theater and art.
She then begins a hot romance with a Parisian writer who shares her passion for culture and love for literature. But underneath the rush and glitter, France is a fragile place still dealing with the ghosts of the Occupation.
Jacquline makes her home in a rambling apartment with a family that had suffered the horrors of the French Resistance just a few years back. Following the end of the Second World War, Paris is a city filled with betrayal, spies, deception, and suspicion.
But something will happen in the political space that will shape her life from then on.

“Kitchen Chinese” by Ann Mah is the author’s poignant debut about the experiences of a young Chinese American woman. Isabelle Lee has traveled to Beijing to discover family food and herself and is delighted with the mouthwatering dishes.
She gets to enjoy everything from Mongolian hot pots and Peking duck to the lesser-known and colorful cuisines that will be a delight to almost any foodie anywhere.

While the work is reminiscent of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, it is an unforgettable story of fine dining, sibling rivalry, and clashing cultures that makes for a sensual reading experience.
It is the story of one woman’s search for purpose and identity in a faraway and exotic land. It makes for a delicious story seasoned with just the right amount of heart and humor and fascinating cultural tidbits.