...As she grew older, she was aware of her changing position on mortality. In her youth, the topic of death was philosophical; in her thirties it was unbearable and in her forties unavoidable. In her fifties, she had dealt with it in more rational terms, arranging her last testament, itemizing assets and heirlooms, spelling out the organ donation, detailing the exact words for her living will. Now, in her sixties, she was back to being philosophical. Death was not a loss of life, but the culmination of a series of releases. It was devolving into less and less. You had to release yourself from vanity, desire, ambition, suffering, and frustration - all the accoutrements of the I, the ego. And if you die, you would disappear, leave no trace, evaporate into nothingness...

Tan is also in a band with several other well-known writers the Rock Bottom Remainders. When Tan was 15 years old her older brother Peter and father both died of brain tumors within a year of each other. She is the second of three children born to Chinese immigrants Daisy (née Li) who was forced to leave her three daughters from a previous marriage behind in Shanghai and John Tan an electrical engineer and Baptist minister.

In addition to these Tan has written two children's books: The Moon Lady (1992) and Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat (1994) which was turned into an animated series which aired on PBS. Tan is also in a band with several other well-known writers the Rock Bottom Remainders. Her most recent novel Saving Fish from Drowning explores the tribulations experienced by a group of people who disappear while on an expedition in the jungles of Burma.