Girl in Translation
  • Published: 9 June 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141042749
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.00

Girl in Translation

Formats & editions
EBook
28 Jun 2010
Paperback
9 Jun 2011
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A deeply moving tale, uniquely told, of a young immigrant girl exiled in language and struggling to flourish and belong in New York City

Kimberly Chang and her mother move from Hong Kong to New York. A new life awaits them - making a new home in a new country. But all they can afford is a verminous, broken-windowed Brooklyn apartment. The only heating is an unreliable oven. They are deep in debt. And neither speaks one word of English.

Yet there is hope. Eleven-year-old Kim goes to school. And though cut off by an alien language and culture - and forced by poverty to work nights in a sweatshop - she finds the classroom challenges liberating. In books and learning she'll be saved. But can Kim successfully turn the lost girl from Hong Kong into a happy American woman? And should she?

Jean Kwok's powerful and moving tale of hardship and triumph, of heartbreak and love, speaks of all that gets lost in translation.
  • Published: 9 June 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141042749
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $32.00
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Praise for Girl in Translation

Warm, affecting, a compelling pleasure. Manages that rare fictional feat of shifting forever the angle from which you look at the world

Daily Mail

A sensitively handled rites-of-passage account . . . has the unmistakable ring of authenticity

Metro

Deceptively delicate . . . the stumbling endurance of Kimberley, the bond between mother and daughter, and the clever use of Chinese culture and tradition make for more than a salutary read

Guardian

Incredibly honest and powerful, written with unflinching directness . . . a truly amazing story that'll leave you full of admiration and affection for the characters

Easy Living

Engagingly narrated, irresistible

Independent

Astonishing

Vogue

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Girl in Translation book club notes

Discussion points for Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok.