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  • Girl in Translation

  • Written by: Jean Kwok
  • Narrated by: Grayce Wey
  • Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (6 ratings)

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Girl in Translation cover art

Girl in Translation

Written by: Jean Kwok
Narrated by: Grayce Wey
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Publisher's Summary

Introducing a fresh, exciting Chinese-American voice, an inspiring debut about an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures.

When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life--like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family's future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition--Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.

Through Kimberly's story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant--a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.
©2010 Jean Kwok (P)2010 Penguin
Coming of Age Literary Fiction
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What the critics say

"Searing debut novel... poignant." (USA Today)

"Kwok drops you right inside Kimberly's head, adding Chinese idioms to crisp dialogue. And the book's lesson - that every choice comes at the expense of something else - hits home in every language." (People)

"Consistently compelling." (Entertainment Weekly)

What listeners say about Girl in Translation

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  • DMD
  • 2018-09-16

A Coming of Age Story

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. This was a lovely coming of age story with a bit of a twist. The main character, Kimberly Change, has emigrated from Japan with her mother and has to learn how to grow up and adapt to her new life in New York City. The story is well-written and points out some of the difficult truths of emigrant life like poverty and the difficulties of not understanding the language and the customs.

The narrator was good and I had no trouble following the story and enjoyed her performance. #Audible1

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