Girl in Translation. About a young girl who immigrates to New York City from Hong Kong as it is being transferred to Chinese rule in the late 90s. She and her mother find themselves living in an abandoned, unheated roach-infested apartment in Brooklyn. They live there for over 8 years while the mother works in a sweatshop and the girl attends first public school and then, because she is gifted in math and science, an elite day school on full scholarship, helping her mother after school at the sweatshop where they are paid 1cent per skirt. In the 90s. I was riveted by the first-personal narration in a child’s voice, by the bald descriptions of the filthy factory and the frigid apartment. I was so moved to know that this book had its roots in the actual life of the author, Jean Kwok, who immigrated to Brooklyn with her family and DID work in a sweatshop as a child. She ended up at Harvard and then Columbia. I loved this book. The ending took me by surprise and it felt abrupt and less fully realized than the rest of the book. That said, I still loved this book enough to buy a copy to keep and share. Thank you, Jean Kwak, for writing it.
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