To the rest of the Berkley team—Angela Kim, who is always ready with a response even past midnight; Jin Yu for her endless creativity; and Erin Galloway and Dache Rogers, who are pure magic when it comes to publicity. Thank you, too, to the team at Jill Grinberg Literary Management—Sophia Seidner, Denise Page, and of course Sam Farkas, for bringing the aunties to all over the world.
I am so excited that Dial A for Aunties will be a Netflix movie. This wouldn’t have been possible without the efforts of Mary Pender and Olivia Fanaro of United Talent Agency. They pitched the project flawlessly and found the perfect producers, Nahnatchka Khan, Chloe Yellin, John Davis, and Jordan Davis. I’m so glad that the project is being handled by Lisa Nishimura of Netflix, who will no doubt turn it into a wonderful, rollicking film.
On the personal side, I am wildly grateful to Nicole Lesperance for urging me to write this batty story, Bethany Hensel for talking me through all of my indecisions and helping me envision the right ending, Lani Frank for being such a sharp, brilliant critique partner, and Elaine Aliment for her expertise on writing romance. And of course to the rest of my writing family: Toria Hegedus for being empathetic even when I’m at my most unbearable, SL Huang who is quite possibly the smartest person I know, Tilly Latimer for all the reality checks, Rob Livermore for the laughs, Maddox Hahn for all the entertainment, Mel Melcer for the wisdom, Emma Maree for the faith in humanity, Grace Shim for the hours of heart-to-heart when I needed them, Sajni Patel for all the virtual donuts, Marti Leimbach for sharing all of her publishing expertise, Alechia Dow for always checking in on me, Kate Dylan for being such a hilarious fish, and all the folks of Absolute Write, without whom I would have quit writing a long time ago.
To my husband, Mike, who supported me for years while I struggled to write. Without his confidence in me, I would’ve definitely given up after my first book. In fact, I probably wouldn’t have even finished my first book. To my little girls, Emmeline and Rosalie, who will one day read this when they’re grown （I hope. Or I shall guilt them into reading it!） and hopefully gain more understanding of our heritage from it. Or at least some laughs.
And most importantly, to my Mama and Papa and the rest of the Sutanto and Wijaya families. Growing up, I never experienced true fear because I always knew that my parents and the entire strength of the Sutanto and Wijaya clans would catch me if I fell. Thank you for bringing me up with that assurance. Thank you for giving up everything so that you could give me everything. This book is about families, for my family.
Terima kasih, Mama dan Papa tersayang.
READERS GUIDE
READERS GUIDE FOR
DIAL A FOR AUNTIES
Questions for Discussion
1. Meddy feels a lot of guilt and responsibility to keep her mother and aunts happy, so much so that she was willing to forego moving to New York with Nathan. Do you think this was the right choice for her? What would you have done?
2. Which of Meddy’s aunts would you most want in an emergency, and why?
3. Although Meddy’s mother and aunts are constantly sniping at each other, at the end of the day they are willing to drop everything to help Meddy. Can you relate to this, whether it is with your group of friends or with your family?
4. A large part of the immigrant experience is learning a new language. Big Aunt, Second Aunt, and Ma struggled to speak English well, while Fourth Aunt has mastered it and sometimes wields it as a weapon against Ma. Are you familiar with the struggle that immigrants face with adopting a new language and have you witnessed immigrants being made fun of or belittled for not speaking their adopted language fluently? How do you think we as a society can help prevent this from happening?
5. Meddy does not have the best experience with dating, so her mother takes it upon herself to find a date for her. Have you ever been set up by a family member or friend? What has your experience with dating apps been like?
6. Although Meddy broke up with Nathan abruptly when they were in college, he was immediately happy to see her again and didn’t push her too hard for answers. Were you surprised by how readily he accepted her hurried apology, and how willing he was to help Meddy with hiding the truth about the dead body?
7. If you were to accidentally kill your blind date—which, let’s face it, is something that could totally happen to anyone—who would you call to help dispose of the body? Would it be someone in your family? Disclaimer: of course in a real-life situation we all know the first thing to do would be to call the police!
8. As the child of immigrant parents, Meddy often feels out of place. She’s neither fully at home in California nor in Indonesia. Have you ever felt displaced in a similar way? Do you think it’s something that can be overcome?