60 pages 2 hours read

Jesse Q. Sutanto

Dial A for Aunties

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Background

Authorial Context: Jesse Q. Sutanto

Meddy Chan and her aunts’ personalities are inspired by the real members of Jesse Q. Sutanto’s family. Sutanto has many reasons for drawing inspiration from her own family, from a disdain for research to a desire to share information about Indonesia with Westerners. Sutanto, who grew up living in Indonesia, Singapore, and Oxford—and currently resides in Jakarta with her family—has “forty-two first cousins and thirty aunties and uncles, many of whom live just down the road” (Sutanto, Jesse Q. “Meet the Sutantos: How My Wacky Indonesian Family Inspired a Murder Mystery.” CrimeReads, 29 Apr. 2021). Like Nathan Chan, Sutanto’s husband, Mike, is British. Sutanto has said, “[A]side from the dead body, my large family can produce situations as wild as the ones in my book [Dial A for Aunties.] [...] They may go a little overboard, but they always remind me of how loved I am” (“Meet the Sutantos”).

Sutanto, who, like Meddy, has also worked as a wedding photographer, exemplifies her family’s dynamic with Mike through a story about an instance of food poisoning.

Related Titles

By Jesse Q. Sutanto

Study Guide

logo

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Jesse Q. Sutanto

Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

Jesse Q. Sutanto