Author:Bich Minh Nguyen
Linny and Van Luong are two second generation Vietnamese immigrant sisters from the American Midwest. Linny, the youngest, is pretty and popular but trapped in a cycle of dead-end jobs and hopeless affairs. Van, plain and socially awkward, is an overachieving immigration lawyer with a seemingly picture-perfect marriage. The sisters have been locked in a relationship of mutual disdain for as long as they can remember.
When their eccentric elderly father, inventor of the 'Luong Arm' (a gadget to help short people reach objects in high places), finally decides to take the oath for American citizenship in order to compete in an American Idol style reality show for inventors, the sisters must return to their childhood home to plan a party to celebrate the decision that took thirty years to make.
As they navigate their secrets, silences and all that has seemed out of reach to them for so long, Van and Linny realize that they are not so different from each other after all...
A funny, heart-warming take on family unity and cultural identity
—— Marie ClaireLoaded with tender charm and wry, lightly observed insights
—— Daily MailA smoothly pleasurable read
—— GuardianFans of Amy Tan and Monica Ali will love Short Girls, which has already been dubbed a Vietnamese The Joy Luck Club
—— RedAn intelligent, bittersweet debut novel
—— Sunday TimesNguyen is an amusing observer of assimilation angst...this gentle-comedy of inter-generational strife is a polished and poised affair
—— IndependentFonseca's prose is fluent, confident and often funny ... she has a gift for satire that glimmers through this novel. And a near-perfect ear for nuances of speech. Attachment is ferociously well observed. Both physiologically and socially ... as a first novel, the signs of greater things are clearly there
—— GuardianFonseca's voice - poised, particular, exotic - rises above her plot
—— ObserverHer prose is elegant and wry
—— Daily TelegraphFonseca's talent lies in describing the texture of daily life: the mango with a 'skin like sunset', the pizza boxes that open 'like laptops' ... she is good on the sweep of history and the cultural climate of previous times ... telling details of character - particularly the male characters, are captured well
—— New StatesmanIsabel Fonseca's slinkily assured debut novel shows a wry appreciation of the complexities of modern love...a novel that presumes to put a woman's mid-life crisis - sexual, spiritual and intellectual - centre stage
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentInvolving novel
—— Observerthis smart, clammy drama, manages to be both unsettling and touching
—— GuardianFabulous and very clever
—— Marilla Frostrup , PsychologiesA witty exploration of the preoccupations of middle age - sex, serious illness, the death of a parent - its main attraction being the voice, at once tough, funny and lonely, of the inimitable Jean.
—— Arminta Wallace , Irish TimesFonesca's debut novel is a funny, heart rendering account of the virtues of love and desire, confounded against the everyday.
—— www.harpersbazaar.co.ukBeautifully written
—— Image MagazineIt is expertly written in its way, and oddly compelling - like a slushy movie you can't help but respond to
—— GuardianMoving and thoughtful ... Poignant and compelling, this lyrical novel lifts the veil on an internal world of love, rivalry and misunderstanding; an intricate depiction of sibling relationships
—— Good Book GuideA beautifully evocative and intelligent novel
—— Woman & HomeThis impassioned tale is a gripping read
—— James Smart , The GuardianJones is fabulous...offering titbits of danger and discord, yet keeping a cool matter-of-fact tone for the big horrors
—— Sunday TimesHer second novel is a must-read; a devastating, brilliant account of what happens when everything a man believes in...begins to crumble
—— Cath Kidson MagazineFull of danger and discord
—— Sunday Times Summer Reading
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