Year of the Rat: Book 1 Lunar New Years

Sex, drugs, international travel and adventure. A fresh take on the expatriate experience and new gonzo journalism. 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 dark-humor melodrama, Charlie forges an uncommon yet brutally honest path, stumbling his way into the long-term expat lifestyle, with frequent forays into the underbelly of Asian society.