If you didn't know this novel was a work of fiction, you'd think you were reading a memoir of Judy Fong Bates childhood!

At the age of six, Su-Jen is brought to Canada by her mother from China, to live in a small town just outside Toronto called Irvine. Su-Jen's father, Hing-Wun Chou has been in Canada awhile, running his small restaurant called 'The Dragon Cafe'. Su-Jen's mother wants her to have a better life in Canada with opportunities to attend school and obtain a decent job. Su-Jen tells her story of growing up in a small town in Canada, learning english, attending school and keeping ''family secrets''. Su-Jen suffers some terrible grief stricken incidents and must keep the secrets of her family and remember to always be a "proper Chinese daughter''!

Su-Jen's older brother, Lee-Kung eventually comes to 'The Dragon Cafe' to begin working alongside his mother and father in preparation to take over the family business some day.

Life for Su-Jen and her family becomes complicated and tense with the arrival of Lee-Kung. Su-Jen is left to shoulder her pain, confusion and loneliness on her own for fear of "losing face" with her family or by "bringing shame on her family". Such intense emotions for a young girl to keep to herself without proper explanations.

This is a beautiful, heartaching story of a young girl and her family's struggle for a better life in Canada! I still feel as though there is an underlying current in this novel that might just have some "truth" of a memoir in it?

I am so looking forward to future novels by Judy Fong Bates.

Picked up during a country get away at JuneBug31's house today. As usual, had a wonderful time and came home with good memories and wonderful books.

Thanks.

This reads like a memoir rather than a work of fiction. It is full of rich characters and emotions. Annie (Su-Jen)is a sensitive and caring young girl when she is transplanted from China to Canada with her mother. She meets her father for the first time and discovers prejudice and hard work. She also discovers deceit and loneliness when her much older brother comes wto live with them. She makes and loses friends while learning English and the ways of the "lo-fan" (white person). She almost forgets her Chinese heritage but is sharply reminded when her brother obtains a mail-order bride and during visits to Chinatown in Toronto.

She is the fulfilment of her parents' hopes and dreams. They want more for her than working in a cafe, they want her to finish school, go to university, have a home and a family and live like the "lo-fans"..but yet not to lose her sense of pride in China and her history.

For Annie, it's a hard line to walk - having white friends, being the only Chinese girl in school, loving her older father and beautiful mother, wanting to do things that all her friends do, but knowing that her parents expect her to be a "good and obedient Chinese girl".


Annie finds a compromise that seems to work and although she knows her family is not happy - she envies her friend Charlotte's family for their easygoing teasing and happiness, she knows that she can only continue in the path her parents have laid out for her.


This is on lotusflower77's wishlist so I'll be saving it for her.

Received from the first Asian swap at BookswapLive.com!
Thanks Cestmoi!