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by Bich Minh Nguyen
Van and Linny Luong are as baffling to each other as their parents' Vietnamese legacy is to them both. Van, the quintessential overachiever, has applied the same studied diligence to her law career and marriage—a beau idéal that vaporized when Mr. Right walked out. Linny—pretty, fashionable, untethered—is grasping for purpose when her affair with a married man takes a humiliating turn. Each is the last person her sister would call, but when Mr. Luong summons them home for his American citizenship party, Van and Linny find themselves communing about their past—their late mother, their father's obsession with his Luong Arm invention, even the irony of their romantic straits. As these unlikely confidantes chart the uncertainty that defines them, they forge a tentative new relationship and the wherewithal to overcome disappointment
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Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "a writer to watch, a tremendous talent," Nguyen recasts her gifts marvelously in this first novel, infusing it with humor, compassion, and insight into siblings, aging parents, and the desires and ambitions that drive us.
"Nguyen's novel is clever and lively, a fine update to a familiar setup." - Publishers Weekly
"A compassionate family drama that attacks emotional and generational unrest with an optimistic thesis - life goes on." - Kirkus Reviews
"Starred Review. Fans of Nguyen's acclaimed memoir, Stealing Buddha's Dinner, will want to read her fiction debut. This should also appeal to readers of Asian American fiction." - Library Journal
This information about Short Girls was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bich Minh Nguyen [Bit Min Nwin] is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner.
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