Deceit and Other Possibilities - Softcover

Hua, Vanessa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0997199628 ISBN 13: 9780997199628

Publisher: Willow Books, 2016

Synopsis

Winner, Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature "Searing debut" -O, The Oprah MagazineFinalist, California Book Award
"Exactly what we need to be reading in this country right now; and probably always...this collection is funny and sad, quick-witted and thought provoking" -Bustle"Subversively funny...readable and human."- Buzzfeed
"The men, women and children in Hua's moving debut often find themselves straddling the volatile fault lines between desire and shame, decorum and rage... She has a deep understanding of the pressure of submerged emotions and polite, face-saving deceptions. The truth comes out, sometimes explosively, sometimes in a quiet act of courage." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Hua writes with sophistication and the punch of the immigrant experience today...exuberant stories filled with nuance and fresh detail." -LitHub

"Profoundly moving, and impossible to forget...a truly impressive debut." -Nylon"35 Over 35 Debut Authors"
 
In this powerful debut collection, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a new America. Tied to their ancestral and adopted homelands in ways unimaginable in generations past, these memorable characters straddle both worlds but belong to none.
These stories shine a light on immigrant families navigating a new America, straddling cultures and continents, veering between dream and disappointment. From a Hong Kong movie idol fleeing a sex scandal, to an obedient daughter turned Stanford pretender, from a Chinatown elder summoned to his village, to a Korean-American pastor with a secret agenda, the characters in the collection illustrate the conflict between self and society, tradition and change. In "What We Have is What We Need," winner of The Atlantic student fiction prize, a boy from Mexico reunites with his parents in San Francisco. When he suspects his mother has found love elsewhere, he fights to keep his family together.
With insight and wit, she writes about what wounds us and what we must survive. Deceit and Other Possibilities marks the emergence of a remarkable new writer. Vanessa Hua is an award-winning journalist and writer, and a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. For nearly two decades, she has been writing about Asia and the diaspora, filing stories from China, Burma, Panama, South Korea, Abu Dhabi, and Ecuador. Her fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, ZYZZYVA, Guernica, and elsewhere.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In this powerful debut collection, Vanessa Hua gives voice to immigrant families navigating a new America. Tied to their ancestral and adopted homelands in ways unimaginable in generations past, these memorable characters straddle both worlds but belong to none.

From a Hong Kong movie idol fleeing a sex scandal, to an obedient daughter turned Stanford imposter, to a Chinatown elder summoned to his village, to a Korean-American pastor with a secret agenda, the characters in these ten stories vividly illustrate the conflict between self and society, tradition and change. In "What We Have is What We Need," winner of The Atlantic student fiction prize, a boy from Mexico reunites with his parents in San Francisco. When he suspects his mother has found love elsewhere, he fights to keep his family together.

With insight and wit, she writes about what wounds us and what we must survive. Her searing stories explore the clash of cultures and the complex, always shifting allegiances that we carry in ourselves, our family, and our community. DECEIT AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES marks the emergence of a remarkable new writer.

About the Author

Vanessa Hua, author of DECEIT AND OTHER POSSIBILITIES and a forthcoming novel from Ballantine, is a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, the San Francisco Foundation's James D. Phelan Award, and a Steinbeck Fellowship. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York Times, ZYZZYVA, Guernica, LitHub, and elsewhere.

About this edition

• Publisher: Willow Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0997199628
• ISBN 13: 9780997199628
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 150