The Sound of Language: A Novel by Amulya Malladi [in Bloomsbury Review]
Indian-born, U.S.-, UK-, and now Denmark-domiciled Malladi is a literary chameleon, thanks in part to her changing addresses. Language, which features a young Afghan refugee woman escaping unnamable horrors under the Taliban, is almost like reading a sister text of Khaled Hosseini’s...
Sameera Righton, who first appeared in First Daughter: Extreme American Makeover, now calls the White House “home.” Sparrow, as her parents call her, is the adopted Pakistani-born daughter of the new U.S. President and his First...
This slim volume resonates long after the last page, especially for mothers in today’s overscheduled, harried world.
Hua Wu, a recent Chinese immigrant working a dead-end waitress job in New York's Chinatown, meets stylish Jane Templeton...
Get ready for some rollicking fun with this debut novel about super-overachieving Maya, the perfect daughter who gets all As and still manages to help out in her parents’ Thai restaurant.
One small slip-up while her parents...
Through loosely connected short stories, Wang's second collection straddles both worlds of her native China with her adopted America – and the undefinable spaces in between. From the young Chinese girl who sees too much in...
Luddite me made a surprisingly funny joke to two techies after reading
If literary awards are any measure of prowess, then native Chinese speaker Ha Jin has most certainly mastered the English language. As a writer of poems, short stories, and fiction, he has been showered...
A spectacular book-without-words that traces one family’s immigration story with brilliant imagination. In an unnamed troubled land, a man leaves his wife and young daughter behind in search of freedom in a new country. His adjustments...
In the latter 19th century, thousands of Chinese Americans were viciously purged from their homes throughout the West Coast. What makes Driven Out more than another tome of historical woe are the little-known tales of valiant...
As the daughter of struggling Korean immigrants, Casey Han has created a persona defined by her expensive tastes, her magna cum laude Princeton degree, and a wealthy family friend who is always there to lend a...
As elliptical as Hur’s debut novel is, it’s also incredibly dense, weighed down by the trials and tribulations of a lost generation of Korean American Manhattanites whose teenage lives revolve around the clubs and restaurants of...
At the heart of M.G. Vassanji's sixth novel, The Assassin's Song, is an exercise in perspective. Definitions of right and wrong, truth and deception, the chosen and outcast – especially in matters having to do with...
If I were to make my mother the happiest mother in the world, I’d finish at least one of my PhDs by writing that elusive dissertation on Yoko Tawada and her fantastical, enigmatic, revisionist, ambiguous short...
Although based in part on the real-life experiences of Virginia Loh’s childhood in Northern Virginia, something about Dragon just doesn’t ring true. The premise seems unique and most definitely worthwhile – I can’t remember another middle-grade...
Using food as an engaging trope to tell her poignant story – from Pringles to Big Macs to Bubble Yum and Little Debbies – Nguyen takes the reader on a vicarious munching session, recounting her experiences...
The long-awaited biography – even if it’s a tad bit on the academic side – on Hayakawa, a trailblazing Asian American film pioneer, who in his silent heyday was one of the most recognizable, lauded actors,...
This Chinese American installment of the Sex in the City-genre features three 20-something childhood best-friends, each pursuing her own brand of happiness in Manhattan. While it starts off with a rather cringe-inducing visit to a Chinatown...
Reddi’s debut – absolutely one of the best short story collections this year – captures the nuanced, often contradictory lives of multiple generations of the Indian diaspora. From the cranky old judge convinced he has...
Even with a protagonist who shares the author's name, as well as various biographical similarities, Mischa Berlinski's first book is indeed a work of fiction: "None of this stuff happened to anyone," he insists in the...
Gene Luen Yang, National Book Award Nominee, Makes Publishing History ...