Melody Chu weaves together tragedy, imposter syndrome and friendship in her debut novel “Mathey Girls."

The Shaker Heights attorney grew up in Northeast Ohio before heading to Princeton University. It was there, as a freshman in the Mathey College dorms, that she forged lifelong relationships that were the seeds for her new book, published by a division of New York-based SureShot Books. Yet she’s quick to point out that she’s very different from protagonist Esther Hsu.

“She kind of is wrecked by a lifelong impostor syndrome that was based on something that happened to her in childhood,” she said. “I am not that. I did have some personal tragedies … the main one was that when I had my third child, Ben, I did have a traumatic birth experience, and I did almost die.”

One of the Mathey girl

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