Double Happiness

Delighted to announce I’ll be reading from Double Happiness at the Alameda Free Library on Tuesday evening, May 5.

If we translate “Cinco de Mayo!” into Chinese we have “Wu yue wu hao!” There will be celebrations, festivities, and a surprise giveaway.

The library is doing an “Armchair Travel” reading series, and I’ve been asked to read as the closing event of the series. So although I thought my final two events were the two Bay Area events in January, here’s another chance to get a taste of Double Happiness and to meet me at an event. I’d love to see you there!

Tuesday, May 5
6:30pm : Reading & Signing
Alameda Free Library
1550 Oak Street
Alameda, CA
Full Event Info > 

Contact information, a media kit, and downloadable high-resolution photographs are available at the bottom of this page.

Tony’s Story

Tony Brasunas grew up on a commune in West Virginia. Before leaving for China, as a teenager at Amherst College, he studied Chinese, music, writing, and Computer Science, and meandered into a thoughtful and lonely social and political conservatism.

Directionless after college, perhaps expecting something more from the planet, Tony applied just after the deadline to Princeton in Asia, and he was swiftly bundled off to Guangzhou, China, to teach English. The ensuing journey broke him open. His body tasted death in hospitals and Tibetan monsoons, his heart opened up and slammed shut and opened again, and some unknown inner sage awoke and suggested he trust his intuition.

Double Happiness: One Man’s Tale of Love, Loss, and Wonder on the Long Roads of China (December 2013, Torchpost) masterfully retells that awakening against a backdrop of a modern, changing China.

Excerpts from the manuscript have appeared in the book China, an anthology of travel writing on China published by Travelers’ Tales Press, and in Travelmag, a British online travel magazine.

Writing ‘Double Happiness’

The second journey Tony undertook was writing it all down, editing it, and transforming the journey that changed his life into a story and a book. His third journey was launching a campaign on Kickstarter to gather the money and energy to publish it. And this is his fourth journey — sharing his story with the world.

In the years since China, Tony has slaked bouts of wanderlust by crisscrossing the Andes of Peru, backpacking through Germany and France during a World Cup, and sneaking illegally into Tibet.

Tony speaks passable Mandarin, Spanish, and English, and perhaps that’s why he was asked one fragrant spring evening in Kunming, China to play guitar on a radio station. The host on Kunming’s STAR 101.8 FM asked him why his songs were about a young woman. “Ta shi shei?” (Who is she?) inquired the host. Tony had met her at a nearby cafe, he replied, and she had become his tutor, his teacher of the Chinese that is spoken aloud, not just written in textbooks. “She’s on the roof right now with a radio,” Tony added with a smile. “She has a basket of strawberries and is hoping to hear me play guitar.”

Two weeks later, Tony was arrested and interrogated in Tibet.

The Timeline

Double Happiness was published internationally in trade paperback on December 12, 2013. Hardcover and e-book versions followed in January 2014. The audiobook, narrated by Brasunas, came out in January 2015.

In May 2014, at the Paris Book Festival, Double Happiness won best in Biography / Autobiography. Press release >

In July 2014, Double Happiness was named ForeWord Travel Book of the Year, Silver Winner. Press release >

In September 2014, the Living Now Book Awards (recognizing “Books For Better Living”) named Double Happiness best inspirational memoir.

The Publisher – Torchpost

All blogs, magazines, newspapers, and social media are welcome to request publicity materials, interviews, or review copies of Double Happiness.

Get the Book >

Tony Brasunas’s award-winning debut memoir is a portrait of life in China and a groundbreaking story of coming of age in today’s era of globalization.

Having never before left the United States nor taught a class on anything, armed only with a beginner’s grasp of the language, Brasunas arrives in a sultry Guangzhou classroom and is confronted by thirty-seven uniformed ninth graders.

After losing control of his tense classroom, losing money in dishonest street markets, and falling deathly ill in a decrepit hospital, a deep curiosity about Chinese culture drives him to connect with his students, to trust his human instincts in the chaotic streets, and to make friends from all walks of life.

When the school year ends, his curiosity burgeoning, Brasunas sets off with just a backpack across the vastness of China, along the Silk Road in the north, and into ancient Tibet in the west. His road brings terrifying perils, unexpected romance, and twists of fate that transform his understanding of right and wrong, beauty and truth, suffering and happiness.

In an inspiring and riveting adventure through the cities and hinterlands of a changing China, Brasunas meets people of all walks of life on their turf. At the same time, he explores the contours of his own heart and uncovers keys to human fulfillment. With adventurous range, inspirational tone, and global scope, the exquisite prose of Double Happiness evokes both Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild.

This is a journey across China and through the soul of a young American.

Posts

Read blog posts about Double Happiness, click here >

Excerpts

Excerpts of the manuscript have been published in China, a Travelers’ Tales Press anthology of travel writing on China, and in Travelmag, a British online travel magazine. Read the prologue, click here >

Publication

The book was published internationally in trade paperback, hardcover, and e-book in January 2014. The audiobook, narrated by Brasunas, followed in January 2015.

Awards

Double Happiness has won numerous awards. In July 2014, it was named a winner of the ForeWord Travel Book of the Year. At the Paris Book Festival, Double Happiness won best in Biography / Autobiography. In September 2014, the Living Now Book Awards (recognizing “Books For Better Living”) named Double Happiness best inspirational memoir.

Many other awards have followed.

Join the Journey

Double Happiness is for armchair travelers, English teachers, China buffs, adventure backpackers, young people in their twenties and thirties seeking a place in this swiftly changing world, and readers of all ages curious about a young man’s internal awakening in a foreign land.

Get your copy and join the journey today >

Tony Brasunas’s award-winning debut memoir, a young American’s journey through China.

• Alameda, CA
  Books, Inc.
  1344 Park Street
  Alameda, CA
• Amherst, MA
  Amherst Books
  8 Main Street
  Amherst, MA
• Corte Madera, CA
  Book Passage
  1714 NE Broadway Street
  Corte Madera, CA
• Los Angeles, CA
  Mystic Journey Bookstore
  1624 Abbott Kinney Blvd.
  Venice, CA
• Beyond Baroque
  681 Venice Blvd.
  Venice, CA
• Olympia, WA
  Orca Books
  509 East 4th Avenue
  Olympia, WA
• Phoenix, AZ
  Changing Hands Books
  6428 S McClintock Drive
  Tempe, AZ
• Portland, OR
  Broadway Books
  1714 NE Broadway Street
  Portland, OR
• Rosendale, NY
  Roos Arts
  449 Main Street
  Rosendale, NY
• San Francisco, CA
  Green Apple Books
  506 Clement Street
  San Francisco, CA
• Santa Barbara, CA
  Granada Books
  1224 State Street
  Santa Barabara, CA
• Seattle, WA
  Third Place Books
  17171 Bothell Way NE
  Lake Forest Park, WA
• St. Louis, MO
  Subterranean Books
  6275 Delmar
  St. Louis, MO
• China
  The Bookworm
  Building 4, Nan Sanlitun Road
  Chaoyang District, Beijing
• Daofeng (The Blade) Bookstore
  Binjiang Rd
  Xiufeng, Guilin
• Sweet Station
  43 Hongzhuang Street
  Daoli, Harbin

Connecting with you throughout the country on this tour has been so fulfilling and fun that it’s hard to believe it’s coming to a close. But next week at Books, Inc., in Alameda, and later this month, at Green Apple Books in San Francisco, we will approach the end of the Double Happiness Book Tour.

These final two events, both in the Bay Area, should both really be great. Please come support our local independent bookstores for my only East Bay and San Francisco readings:

Friday, January 9 (EAST BAY)
7pm : Reading & Signing
Books, Inc.
1344 Park St, Alameda
Full Event Info > 

Saturday, January 24 (SF)
4pm : Reading & Signing
Green Apple Books
506 Clement St., SF
Full Event Info >

Until then, trust yourself, have fun, take chances,
Tony

As I mentioned during the Kicksarter, the number 8 is considered “lucky” and “happy” in China, and it is connected with the character for Double Happiness. In honor of the luckiness of 8, for these eight days, December 18-25, Double Happiness will be half free!

Gifts out of gratitude for anyone who would enjoy an adventurous and redemptive journey through the Middle Kingdom:

The Audiobook

Yes! It’s my pleasure to announce that after dozens of hours in a recording studio in Berkeley, CA, and after the hardcover, paperback, and e-book have been out for many months, the final format of Double Happiness is nearly here! I will write more about this in future posts, but to answer your basic questions:

• Yes, I read the book myself and tell the story for your listening pleasure.
• Yes, I pronounce the Chinese terms and words for you.
• Yes, it’s the unabridged whole book.
• Yes, it’s a wonderfully professional production. A double gratitude to the pros at Live Oak Studio.
• Yes, it’s availabe on Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. 

Update: It’s now published and available on Amazon and should be in iTunes and Audible any minute now as well!

Here it is: The Amazon Page >

January Events!
December will soon turn into January and with it, the book tour will wrap up. I’ve had so many wonderful events and so much fun connecting with you throughout the country, it’s hard to believe the book tour is coming to a close. There are a couple of final events left, and they should be great, so if you are (or will be) in the Bay Area, I will be doing my final reading events in January. Please come and support these wonderful independent bookstores. My only East Bay and San Francisco readings will take place:

Friday, January 9 (EAST BAY) 
7pm : Reading & Signing
Books, Inc. 
1344 Park St, Alameda
Full Event Info > 

Saturday, January 24 (SF) 
4pm : Reading & Signing 
Green Apple Books 
506 Clement St., SF
Full Event Info >

That’s the news from Double Happiness land for now.

Double happy holidays to all,
Tony