Girl In Translation by: Jean Kwok

***Received an advance copy courtesy Riverhead Books

Synopsis

Introducing a fresh, exciting Chinese-American voice, an inspiring debut about an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures. When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life-like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition-Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles. Through Kimberly's story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant-a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.

My Review Comments:

Dreams do really come true even without a Prince Charming at the end. Girl In Translation describes the life of Kimberly Chang, a Chinese girl who emigrated from Hong Kong with her Mother when she was only 11 years old to a promising life in America, where all dreams are possible as long as you wish for them, they will come true. But, everything isn’t as it seems. Instead of living the American dream, Kimberly is torn between two worlds that don’t seem to fit her. There are some twists that happen at the end of the book too. Sometimes true happiness is fighting through obstacles with perseverance to become who you were always meant to be. I really enjoyed this book and to me it was a modern day fairytale that came to live throughout the pages. I would highly recommend it.