Author: James Baldwin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804149712
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic. Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this "brilliantly and fiercely told" book (The New York Times) depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
Another Country
Author: James Baldwin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804149712
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic. Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this "brilliantly and fiercely told" book (The New York Times) depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0804149712
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions—sexual, racial, political, artistic. Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this "brilliantly and fiercely told" book (The New York Times) depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read
Another Country
Author: James Baldwin
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141186372
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 540
Book Description
After Rufus Scott, an embittered and unemployed black jazz-musician commits suicide, his sister Ida and old friend Vivaldo become lovers. Yet their feelings for each other are complicated by Rufus's friends, especially the homosexual actor Eric Jones who has been Vivaldo's lover.
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141186372
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 540
Book Description
After Rufus Scott, an embittered and unemployed black jazz-musician commits suicide, his sister Ida and old friend Vivaldo become lovers. Yet their feelings for each other are complicated by Rufus's friends, especially the homosexual actor Eric Jones who has been Vivaldo's lover.
JUST ANOTHER COUNTRY — A Novel
Author: John Moody
Publisher: Brick Tower Press
ISBN: 1590190092
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Book Description
In Just Another Country, Moody brings an emotionally shattering, politically infuriating conclusion to his fact-based trilogy of China’s relentless attempts to destroy the United States, be it through a deadly virus, an endless wave of illegal immigrants, shipments of fentanyl, or Artificial Intelligence. Worst of all, Chinese AI Bots have acquired emotions and are now turning humans into their slaves. Moody’s warnings about the decline of the U.S. and China’s escalating threat to the West in his three volumes have been largely borne out in recent years. As Xi Jinping, the iron-fisted leader of the Chinese Communist Party, accelerates his drive for global superiority, naïve, heedless Americans fret over racial hatred, inequality, gender identity, sexual freedom, celebrity singers, TV shows and Donald Trump’s hair. JFK’s famous “Ask not” speech has been turned on its head. In today’s America, E Pluribus Unum has been deformed into Gimme gimme gimme. Moody presents a parallel, interwoven tale of America’s troubled relations with Mexico and its longstanding failure to control the flood of illegal immigrants along its southern border. With flashbacks to another refugee from the former Soviet Union, it’s clear that no matter the century, no matter the politics, no matter the truth, unless it changes its self-satisfied, self-defeating ways, America risks becoming Just Another Country. Praise for Of Course They Knew, Of Course They... “Americans know something is wrong but have been silenced by political correctness. These characters have a voice.” —Sean Hannity “John Moody has made a major contribution to our understanding of the Covid disaster. His novel will enlighten every person who reads it. I found it fascinating.” —Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Praise for The World We Wish “The World We Wish takes the reader inside the stark realities of the Chinese communist system. A fascinating and intriguing story that seems too real to be fiction.” —Bill Gertz, journalist and author of Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy “Drenched in black humor, The World We Wish offers insight into a nation that echoes history’s most notorious regimes... Its greatest strength may be its knack for revealing what’s kept at arm’s length from us via the media and academia.” —Christian Toto, author, editor of HollywoodinToto.com
Publisher: Brick Tower Press
ISBN: 1590190092
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 440
Book Description
In Just Another Country, Moody brings an emotionally shattering, politically infuriating conclusion to his fact-based trilogy of China’s relentless attempts to destroy the United States, be it through a deadly virus, an endless wave of illegal immigrants, shipments of fentanyl, or Artificial Intelligence. Worst of all, Chinese AI Bots have acquired emotions and are now turning humans into their slaves. Moody’s warnings about the decline of the U.S. and China’s escalating threat to the West in his three volumes have been largely borne out in recent years. As Xi Jinping, the iron-fisted leader of the Chinese Communist Party, accelerates his drive for global superiority, naïve, heedless Americans fret over racial hatred, inequality, gender identity, sexual freedom, celebrity singers, TV shows and Donald Trump’s hair. JFK’s famous “Ask not” speech has been turned on its head. In today’s America, E Pluribus Unum has been deformed into Gimme gimme gimme. Moody presents a parallel, interwoven tale of America’s troubled relations with Mexico and its longstanding failure to control the flood of illegal immigrants along its southern border. With flashbacks to another refugee from the former Soviet Union, it’s clear that no matter the century, no matter the politics, no matter the truth, unless it changes its self-satisfied, self-defeating ways, America risks becoming Just Another Country. Praise for Of Course They Knew, Of Course They... “Americans know something is wrong but have been silenced by political correctness. These characters have a voice.” —Sean Hannity “John Moody has made a major contribution to our understanding of the Covid disaster. His novel will enlighten every person who reads it. I found it fascinating.” —Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Praise for The World We Wish “The World We Wish takes the reader inside the stark realities of the Chinese communist system. A fascinating and intriguing story that seems too real to be fiction.” —Bill Gertz, journalist and author of Deceiving the Sky: Inside Communist China’s Drive for Global Supremacy “Drenched in black humor, The World We Wish offers insight into a nation that echoes history’s most notorious regimes... Its greatest strength may be its knack for revealing what’s kept at arm’s length from us via the media and academia.” —Christian Toto, author, editor of HollywoodinToto.com
Always Another Country
Author: Sisonke Msimang
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1925626776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
If I were given five minutes with my younger self—that little girl who cried every time we had to leave for another country—I would hold her tight and not say a word. I would just be still and have her feel my beating heart, a thud to echo her own—a silent message that, no matter the outcome, she would survive and be stronger and happier than she might think as she stood at the threshold of each new home. Sisonke Msimang was born in exile, the daughter of South African freedom fighters. Always Another Country is the story of a young girl’s path to womanhood—a journey that took her from Africa to America and back again, then on to a new home in Australia. Frank, fierce and insightful, she reflects candidly on the abuse she suffered as a child, the naive, heady euphoria of returning at last to her parents’ homeland—and her disillusionment with present-day South Africa and its new elites. Sisonke Msimang is a bold new voice on feminism, race and politics—in her beloved South Africa, in Australia, and around the world. Sisonke Msimang was born in exile to South African parents—a freedom fighter and an accountant—and raised in Zambia, Kenya and Canada before studying in the US as an undergraduate. Her family returned to South Africa after apartheid was abolished in the early 1990s. Sisonke has held fellowships at Yale University, the Aspen Institute and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Daily Maverick and New York Times. She now lives in Perth, Australia, where she is head of oral storytelling at the Centre for Stories. ‘Few of us have felt the grinding force of history as consciously or as constantly as Sisonke Msimang. Her story is a timely insight into a life in which the gap between the great world and the private realm is vanishingly narrow and it bears hard lessons about how fragile our hopes and dreams can be.' Tim Winton ‘Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke’s beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time.’ Graça Machel, Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique ‘Msimang is a talented and passionate writer, one possessed of an acerbic intelligence...This memoir is also full of warmth and humour.’ Saturday Paper ‘Sisonke Msimang kindles a new fire in our store of memoir, a fire that will warm and singe and sear for a long, long while.’ Njabulo S. Ndebele, author The Cry of Winnie Mandela 'An excellent blend of both the personal and political...a bold memoir...a tale that will sustain itself for generations.’ Books & Publishing ‘Msimang pours herself into these pages with a voice that is molten steel; her radiant warmth and humour sit alongside her fearlessness in naming and refusing injustice. Msimang is a masterful memoirist, a gifted writer, and she comes bearing a message that is as urgent and timely as it is eternal.’ Sarah Krasnostein ‘It is rare to hear from such a voice as Sisonke’s—powerful, accomplished, unabashed and brave. This is a gripping and important memoir that is also self-aware and funny, revealing the depths of a country we’ve mostly only seen through a colonial perspective.’ Alice Pung ‘It is not possible to do this book justice in so few words...Always Another Country is eloquent and powerful. Msimang’s explication of what it means to be from – but not of – a place is profoundly moving. Msimang deserves to be widely read and fans of Roxane Gay and Maxine Beneba Clarke, in particular, will not be disappointed.’ Readings ‘[An] eloquent memoir of home, belonging and race politics.’ Big Issue ‘Msimang’s graceful memoir is one of those rare books that managed to make me less cynical about the state of literature...It’s a coming-of-age story for those children for whom home is marked by more than a single physical location.’ New York Times
Publisher: Text Publishing
ISBN: 1925626776
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 319
Book Description
If I were given five minutes with my younger self—that little girl who cried every time we had to leave for another country—I would hold her tight and not say a word. I would just be still and have her feel my beating heart, a thud to echo her own—a silent message that, no matter the outcome, she would survive and be stronger and happier than she might think as she stood at the threshold of each new home. Sisonke Msimang was born in exile, the daughter of South African freedom fighters. Always Another Country is the story of a young girl’s path to womanhood—a journey that took her from Africa to America and back again, then on to a new home in Australia. Frank, fierce and insightful, she reflects candidly on the abuse she suffered as a child, the naive, heady euphoria of returning at last to her parents’ homeland—and her disillusionment with present-day South Africa and its new elites. Sisonke Msimang is a bold new voice on feminism, race and politics—in her beloved South Africa, in Australia, and around the world. Sisonke Msimang was born in exile to South African parents—a freedom fighter and an accountant—and raised in Zambia, Kenya and Canada before studying in the US as an undergraduate. Her family returned to South Africa after apartheid was abolished in the early 1990s. Sisonke has held fellowships at Yale University, the Aspen Institute and the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and is a regular contributor to the Guardian, Daily Maverick and New York Times. She now lives in Perth, Australia, where she is head of oral storytelling at the Centre for Stories. ‘Few of us have felt the grinding force of history as consciously or as constantly as Sisonke Msimang. Her story is a timely insight into a life in which the gap between the great world and the private realm is vanishingly narrow and it bears hard lessons about how fragile our hopes and dreams can be.' Tim Winton ‘Brutally and uncompromisingly honest, Sisonke’s beautifully crafted storytelling enriches the already extraordinary pool of young African women writers of our time.’ Graça Machel, Minister for Education and Culture of Mozambique ‘Msimang is a talented and passionate writer, one possessed of an acerbic intelligence...This memoir is also full of warmth and humour.’ Saturday Paper ‘Sisonke Msimang kindles a new fire in our store of memoir, a fire that will warm and singe and sear for a long, long while.’ Njabulo S. Ndebele, author The Cry of Winnie Mandela 'An excellent blend of both the personal and political...a bold memoir...a tale that will sustain itself for generations.’ Books & Publishing ‘Msimang pours herself into these pages with a voice that is molten steel; her radiant warmth and humour sit alongside her fearlessness in naming and refusing injustice. Msimang is a masterful memoirist, a gifted writer, and she comes bearing a message that is as urgent and timely as it is eternal.’ Sarah Krasnostein ‘It is rare to hear from such a voice as Sisonke’s—powerful, accomplished, unabashed and brave. This is a gripping and important memoir that is also self-aware and funny, revealing the depths of a country we’ve mostly only seen through a colonial perspective.’ Alice Pung ‘It is not possible to do this book justice in so few words...Always Another Country is eloquent and powerful. Msimang’s explication of what it means to be from – but not of – a place is profoundly moving. Msimang deserves to be widely read and fans of Roxane Gay and Maxine Beneba Clarke, in particular, will not be disappointed.’ Readings ‘[An] eloquent memoir of home, belonging and race politics.’ Big Issue ‘Msimang’s graceful memoir is one of those rare books that managed to make me less cynical about the state of literature...It’s a coming-of-age story for those children for whom home is marked by more than a single physical location.’ New York Times
Notes on a Foreign Country
Author: Suzy Hansen
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374712441
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Winner of the Overseas Press Club of America's Cornelius Ryan Award • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction A New York Times Book Review Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by New York Magazine and The Progressive "A deeply honest and brave portrait of of an individual sensibility reckoning with her country's violent role in the world." —Hisham Matar, The New York Times Book Review In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul. Hansen arrived in Istanbul with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East and West, and with a naïve sense of the Islamic world beyond. Over the course of her many years of living in Turkey and traveling in Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, she learned a great deal about these countries and their cultures and histories and politics. But the greatest, most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country—and herself, an American abroad in the era of American decline. It would take leaving her home to discover what she came to think of as the two Americas: the country and its people, and the experience of American power around the world. She came to understand that anti-Americanism is not a violent pathology. It is, Hansen writes, “a broken heart . . . A one-hundred-year-old relationship.” Blending memoir, journalism, and history, and deeply attuned to the voices of those she met on her travels, Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America’s place in the world. It is a powerful journey of self-discovery and revelation—a profound reckoning with what it means to be American in a moment of grave national and global turmoil.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 0374712441
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 316
Book Description
Winner of the Overseas Press Club of America's Cornelius Ryan Award • Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction A New York Times Book Review Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by New York Magazine and The Progressive "A deeply honest and brave portrait of of an individual sensibility reckoning with her country's violent role in the world." —Hisham Matar, The New York Times Book Review In the wake of the September 11 attacks and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Suzy Hansen, who grew up in an insular conservative town in New Jersey, was enjoying early success as a journalist for a high-profile New York newspaper. Increasingly, though, the disconnect between the chaos of world events and the response at home took on pressing urgency for her. Seeking to understand the Muslim world that had been reduced to scaremongering headlines, she moved to Istanbul. Hansen arrived in Istanbul with romantic ideas about a mythical city perched between East and West, and with a naïve sense of the Islamic world beyond. Over the course of her many years of living in Turkey and traveling in Greece, Egypt, Afghanistan, and Iran, she learned a great deal about these countries and their cultures and histories and politics. But the greatest, most unsettling surprise would be what she learned about her own country—and herself, an American abroad in the era of American decline. It would take leaving her home to discover what she came to think of as the two Americas: the country and its people, and the experience of American power around the world. She came to understand that anti-Americanism is not a violent pathology. It is, Hansen writes, “a broken heart . . . A one-hundred-year-old relationship.” Blending memoir, journalism, and history, and deeply attuned to the voices of those she met on her travels, Notes on a Foreign Country is a moving reflection on America’s place in the world. It is a powerful journey of self-discovery and revelation—a profound reckoning with what it means to be American in a moment of grave national and global turmoil.
Our Country Friends
Author: Gary Shteyngart
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1984855131
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews “A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) Eight friends, one country house, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (USA Today) and “an homage to Chekhov with four romances and a finale that will break your heart” (The Washington Post) In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1984855131
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Financial Times, The Washington Post, Time, Los Angeles Times, New York Post, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Kirkus Reviews “A perfect novel for these times and all times, the single textual artifact from the pandemic era I would place in a time capsule as a representation of all that is good and true and beautiful about literature.”—Molly Young, The New York Times (Editors’ Choice) Eight friends, one country house, and six months in isolation—a novel about love, friendship, family, and betrayal hailed as a “virtuoso performance” (USA Today) and “an homage to Chekhov with four romances and a finale that will break your heart” (The Washington Post) In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family. Both elegiac and very, very funny, Our Country Friends is the most ambitious book yet by the author of the beloved bestseller Super Sad True Love Story.
In Another Country
Author: David Constantine
Publisher: Comma Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
A collection of short stories, includes "The Cave," in which a couple travels to a hidden cavern to lose themselves in a waterfall.
Publisher: Comma Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
A collection of short stories, includes "The Cave," in which a couple travels to a hidden cavern to lose themselves in a waterfall.
My Life as a Foreign Country: A Memoir
Author: Brian Turner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245020
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
"Brilliant and beautiful. It surely ranks with the best war memoirs I’ve ever encountered." —Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried An award-winning poet and former infantry team leader in Iraq, Brian Turner combines his devastating recollections as “Sergeant Turner” with his visions of the experiences of generations of warriors in his family—and even those of the enemy—in a work of profound understanding and shocking beauty.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393245020
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 172
Book Description
"Brilliant and beautiful. It surely ranks with the best war memoirs I’ve ever encountered." —Tim O’Brien, author of The Things They Carried An award-winning poet and former infantry team leader in Iraq, Brian Turner combines his devastating recollections as “Sergeant Turner” with his visions of the experiences of generations of warriors in his family—and even those of the enemy—in a work of profound understanding and shocking beauty.
A Foreign Country
Author: Charles Cumming
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 9781250029980
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
When a newly appointed first female Chief of MI6 disappears weeks after two possibly related cases, disgraced former MI6 officer Thomas Kell is offered a chance to redeem his career by conducting a discreet operation that uncovers a shocking conspiracy.
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 9781250029980
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 454
Book Description
When a newly appointed first female Chief of MI6 disappears weeks after two possibly related cases, disgraced former MI6 officer Thomas Kell is offered a chance to redeem his career by conducting a discreet operation that uncovers a shocking conspiracy.
Beautiful Country
Author: Qian Julie Wang
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593313003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world—an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent • A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly “shopping days,” when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn’s streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center—confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all. But then Qian’s headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor’s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593313003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321
Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The moving story of an undocumented child living in poverty in the richest country in the world—an incandescent debut from an astonishing new talent • A TODAY SHOW #READWITHJENNA PICK In Chinese, the word for America, Mei Guo, translates directly to “beautiful country.” Yet when seven-year-old Qian arrives in New York City in 1994 full of curiosity, she is overwhelmed by crushing fear and scarcity. In China, Qian’s parents were professors; in America, her family is “illegal” and it will require all the determination and small joys they can muster to survive. In Chinatown, Qian’s parents labor in sweatshops. Instead of laughing at her jokes, they fight constantly, taking out the stress of their new life on one another. Shunned by her classmates and teachers for her limited English, Qian takes refuge in the library and masters the language through books, coming to think of The Berenstain Bears as her first American friends. And where there is delight to be found, Qian relishes it: her first bite of gloriously greasy pizza, weekly “shopping days,” when Qian finds small treasures in the trash lining Brooklyn’s streets, and a magical Christmas visit to Rockefeller Center—confirmation that the New York City she saw in movies does exist after all. But then Qian’s headstrong Ma Ma collapses, revealing an illness that she has kept secret for months for fear of the cost and scrutiny of a doctor’s visit. As Ba Ba retreats further inward, Qian has little to hold onto beyond his constant refrain: Whatever happens, say that you were born here, that you’ve always lived here. Inhabiting her childhood perspective with exquisite lyric clarity and unforgettable charm and strength, Qian Julie Wang has penned an essential American story about a family fracturing under the weight of invisibility, and a girl coming of age in the shadows, who never stops seeking the light.