Transparency

With a deceptively simple yet graceful style, and in the
tradition of Lara Vapnyar, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Gish Jen,
Frances Hwang captures the thousand minor battles waged
in the homes of immigrants--struggles to preserve timehonored
traditions or break free of them, to maintain
authority or challenge it, and to take advantage of modern
excesses without diluting one's ethnic identity.
In "Garden City," a weary Chinese couple, struggling
to evict their deadbeat tenant, is forced to face the aftermath
of their teenage son's death from cancer. And in "The Old
Gentleman," a daughter becomes alienated from her father
when he finds love--or what he thinks could be love--in his
old age. Frances Hwang is a powerful talent, and
TRANSPARENCY not only showcases her myriad gifts,
but also announces the arrival of an exciting new voice.