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Girl in Translation
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  • Published: 9 June 2011
  • ISBN: 9780141042749
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $29.99

Girl in Translation

Formats & editions
EBook
28 June 2010
Audiobook
29 Apr 2010
Paperback
9 June 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: $29.99
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About the author

Jean Kwok

Jean Kwok is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Leftover Woman, Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation, and Mambo in Chinatown. Her books have been chosen by Read with Jenna’s TODAY show book club, Goodreads Choice, CBS New York, Book of the Month, LibraryReads, and Indie Next, among others, and much of her work is in development for film and television. In between her bachelor’s degree from Harvard and her MFA from Columbia, she worked as a professional ballroom dancer. Her work has been published in more than twenty countries and is taught in schools across the world. When she’s not writing she can be found line dancing, burning food, or snuggling with her cat. After two decades in the Netherlands, she’s returned to the New York area.
portrait photo of Jean Kwok

Also by Jean Kwok

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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