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Girl in Translation
Unavailable
Girl in Translation
Unavailable
Girl in Translation
Audiobook9 hours

Girl in Translation

Written by Jean Kwok

Narrated by Grayce Wey

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

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.

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LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 29, 2010
ISBN9781101155011
Unavailable
Girl in Translation
Author

Jean Kwok

Jean Kwok is the New York Times and internationally bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee, Girl in Translation, and Mambo in Chinatown. Her work has been published in twenty countries and is taught in universities, colleges, and high schools across the world. She has been selected for numerous honors, including the American Library Association Alex Award, the Chinese American Librarians Association Best Book Award, and the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award international shortlist. She received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and earned an MFA from Columbia University. She is fluent in Chinese, Dutch, and English, and divides her time between the Netherlands and New York City.

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Reviews for Girl in Translation

Rating: 3.981481483950617 out of 5 stars
4/5

810 ratings118 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jean Kwok states on her website, "Although Girl in Translation is a work of fiction and not a memoir, the world in which it takes place is real." Despite those words, the book reads like a memoir - it truly does. Kimberly's coming-of-age story mainly focuses between the ages of 12 and 18, and Kwok's writing style transported me into Kimberly's world with ease. It was very engaging. I would have never have guessed that it was a debut novel.I saw glimmers of Betty Smith's, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Lisa See's books - both authors' work in which I have enjoyed. I'm definitely adding Jean Kwok to my "Waiting for More" list of authors.Originally posted on: Thoughts of Joy
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Such an amazing story, this is fiction, but seems to be based loosely in fact, has been compared to A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I agree.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I almost gave up on this book but I'm glad I didn't because the ending completely convinced me that this was a worth to read. I was saddened by the choices Kimberly had to make in the end. This story reminds me that the path we go through in life reflects on the choices we make beforehand. This was a bittersweet story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Girl in Translation is a lovely coming of age/immigrant story. Kim and her mother, who had enjoyed a comfortable life in Hong Kong, immigrate to the US and find themselves living in a Brooklyn slum and working in a Chinatown sweatshop, both complements of a bitter relative. Some aspects of the plot shifted the credulity meter into the red but still a wholly engrossing read, filled with characters with whom you’ll find yourself caring about and rooting for. This a good book to settle in with and enjoy.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I "read" this via audiobook, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't know much about sweatshops existing in the States, I still don't know to what degree this is going on today, but this offers a look into that world for two Chinese immigrants. It's easy to see how someone might get stuck in that life, and Kim is a strong and driven main character who has the determination to get out.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I loved this book! The writing style held my attention, the story was fantastic and interesting. Kimberly is a wonderful heroine.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book in one day for my Teaching American History Grant Program. I very much enjoyed this read - much more so than I thought I would. The book tells the story about Kim Chang and her Ma who come to New York City from Hong Kong in the 1970s. Kim was in the 6th grade and the story talks about her trials and successes adapting to her new country socially, culturally, and economically. This is the type of book I would want my Republican friends to read as it tells the real story of immigration. It is impossible to imagine what it must be like to come to a brand new country, work as hard as you possibly can just to survive, and have little to no hope of moving up in the world. This book challenges the American dream myth and does so in a realistic way. I could not help but root for Kim at all parts of the story.

    What makes the book really work for me is that it does not just follow the "everything comes out ok in the end" philosophy that most books follow. The story was raw and realistic. Recommended to all.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was good at conveying an immigrant experience. However, the last chapter seemed like it was written by a different author and was very amateurish and awkward. Since I liked most of the book I gave it four stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Kwok's voice is so strong, and Kimberly shines through so authentically. It's hard not to feel all her emotions--they're distilled and piercing. It seems clear that at least some embryo of Kimberly's experience must belong to Kwok, and that's why it all seems so powerful, but I'd hate to discount Kwok's obvious talent. The adult characters, most especially Kimberly's mother, are multilayered and so complex as to be difficult. This novel was excellent.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I liked this book, but felt it was just OK overall. The main character had too many character conflicts to be truly believable. I good first novel, but needs more depth and believability.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Girl in Translation is a wonderful, heartfelt coming of age story that explores the hardships of what it is like to immigrate to a new country and a new country where the native language is not your own. The novel is about a young girl (Kimberly) and her mother who leave Hong Kong to live in New York City and the hardships they endure as they live in poverty and try to adapt to this new life. The story explores family relationships and dynamics and cultural differences as Kimberly struggles with staying true to her Chinese heritage while trying to assimilate into American culture and society.It is evident that Kwok has infused some of her own personal experiences into the book and I think this is what made this novel have more meaning for me. Girl In Translation is definitely a must read and one that I highly recommend that you add to your bookshelf.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Kimberly Chang and her mother come from Hong Kong. Aunt Paula arranged for them to come and has provided them with an apartment and work at her clothing factory. Kim slowly learns English and her ability to learn helps her work her way up through high school and to a scholarship at Yale. Great realistic fiction that shows the struggles of countless immigrants that had to fight their way out of poverty to make it in America. Accurately shows the challenges on many levels at Kim struggles to fit in at school while still helping out at the factory after her studies. It's inspiring to see them make their way from poverty and Aunt Paula's control to surgeon and successful citizen.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    i thought this was a memior the whole time I was reading it, and was surprised to find it was a novel. The whole time reading the author makes you feel that she has really lived through these experiences. A young girl and her mother come to America from Hong Kong brought over by her aunt. We follow her through her school years into adulthood including learning english, living in squalor, working in a sweatshop and falling in love. Great book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    A straightforward but very enjoyable account of the trials and tribulations of immigration, with a particular emphasis on the language barrier. Kim and her mother arrive from Hong Kong with hardly a word of English, though Kim is gifted in science and maths. The story of how she gradually learns the language and makes a life for herself despite extreme poverty and the exploitation she and her mother are subjected to within the black economy is an eye-opener. The tribulations of adolescence and the difficulties she has with her friends (not wanting to go to their houses in case they expect a return invitation etc) are relevant in other walks of life too, but the book made me wonder - in particular - about sweatshops, and whether they are confined to the developing world or not.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Audible. I wanted to like this book more than I did. Story of girl from Hong Kong growing into new life in America. Liked the early sections. Especially liked the attempt to capture the difficulties of understanding with phonetics. This was especially interesting in an out-loud reading of the book. But ultimately the characters were too black and white. Or sentimental. And the love story was overwrought. And she was just too smart and successful. I kept thinking of the word "slight" to describe the book. I didn't want that word to arrive in my mind. I wanted more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm into immigration stories these days. This is a good one, of a Chinese immigrant to New York trying to make something of herself. I just wish it had a happier ending :-(
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The heart wrenching story of Kimberly Chan, a young girl who moves to Brooklyn, N.Y. from Hong Kong with her mother when she was just 11 yrs. old. She recounts her story of learning English and trying to do well in school, all while slaving away in a sweatshop with her mother and living in a condemned, rat and roach infested apartment with no heat. As the years pass, readers cannot help but be moved by her bravery, determination and strength to rise above her circumstances. With the heaviness of trying to live when a world wants to tear you down, joy, hope and new life are breathed by Kimberly every day and, hopefully, into the reader to think well upon the poor immigrant experiences of the 21st century.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Highly, highly, highly recommended. A wonderful main character, no easy answers, but inspiring and wonderful all the same.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a book. This is the best thing I have read in a while. Beautiful, heartbreaking, eye opening. After her father's death and her mother's battle with tuberculosis they are forced to immigrate to the US with the help of Kim's Aunt Paula. Little did they know that the American dream was not only a dream but that their reality was so harsh when they are forced to repay their debt to Aunt Paula. The conditions of their lives will cause you to be intermittently angry and heartbroken, knowing the truth in the story. But Kim's character is so wonderfully captured that you are cheering with her in the end.

    Truly a stunning book and a true look into the plight of the sweatshop worker.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This novel read like a memoir. I learned a few things about Chinese immigrant culture. It kept me hooked, but I wasn't a fan of the ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I listened to this book on CD in my car and it was one of those audiobooks that made me wish there was more traffic. The reader is fantastic, and I had to check the description on the back of the case to make sure it wasn't a memoir. The reader almost had me convinced me she was Kimberly Chang.

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    When kimberly and her mother come from Hong Kong to join family in America they speak no English. They owe much debt to their family for bringing them to New York. They are looking for abetter life but end up in a Brooklyn tennament and are forced into a sweatshop in Chinatown. Kimberly uses her talent for school to find a place for herself and her mother learning to translate herself between two worlds.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Girl in Translation is a wonderful, heartfelt coming of age story that explores the hardships of what it is like to immigrate to a new country and a new country where the native language is not your own. The novel is about a young girl (Kimberly) and her mother who leave Hong Kong to live in New York City and the hardships they endure as they live in poverty and try to adapt to this new life. The story explores family relationships and dynamics and cultural differences as Kimberly struggles with staying true to her Chinese heritage while trying to assimilate into American culture and society.It is evident that Kwok has infused some of her own personal experiences into the book and I think this is what made this novel have more meaning for me. Girl In Translation is definitely a must read and one that I highly recommend that you add to your bookshelf.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This guy is more of a 3.5 star rating. I liked it much more than I thought I would, actually. Read it for my book club this month, and this is an example of why I love book club so much - I read many books that I wouldn't otherwise be interested in - and end up enjoying them. This would be a great book for a middle school or early high school english class to read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    The story is great! I want to hear more about it!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Adult fiction. Coming-of-age/immigrant story loosely based on author's own background.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Kimberly Chang and her mother arrive in New York from Hong when Kimberly is just five years old at the beginning of Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation. In debt to her older sister for helping them come to the US, Kimberly’s mom struggles at a dress factory, and they live in a slum apartment. Kimberly begins to excel at school--enough to go to the best private school, but she still goes to the factory in the afternoons to help her mom and she grapples with the contrast in her life. Girl in Translation is an interesting immigrant coming-of-age story that documents the difficulties many Asian Americans face. Some plot points are a bit bumpy, and Kwok chose to wrap the entire novel up with a clumsy epilogue, but it’s still a worthwhile read for anyone looking for AAPI stories.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I’m not sure why this book has garnered such buzz and great reviews. The writing is straightforward and easy to read, but far from being literature. This book seems to belie the fact the author has an MFA in fiction, or perhaps this is all it takes to get an MFA in fiction from Columbia these days-I don’t know. Perhaps the book should have been categorized as YA since it seems to have been written for an eighth grade reading level. I was especially annoyed by the use of italics to start each new thought within a chapter. Someone needs to teach this author and/or the editor how to use italics.

    This is a coming of age story about an 11-year old Chinese girl who comes from Hong Kong with her mother to live in NY in an abandoned tenement with no heat, and work in a clothing factory sweatshop. Kimberly, the young girl, is exceptionally bright so is able to get into a private school on a scholarship and is able to fulfill the American dream of working hard and becoming a success.

    There is no depth to her story or characters. The story is told in a linear “just the facts” manner: “And then this happened, And then this happened, And then this happened, And then 12 years Later…” And she does not make the reader see or feel any real weariness or despair despite the weariness and despair that Kimberly must feel going to school all day and then going straight to the factory to work, sometimes until 2a in the morning, and then coming home to an apartment with no heat in the dead of winter. There are no descriptions of bags under her eyes, or even of her falling asleep at her desk or on the subway. The fact that her mother doesn’t pass her naturalization test which in turn means Kimberly will not automatically become a naturalized citizen is only briefly mentioned. There is nothing said about how great their disappointment must be.

    On a positive note, Kwok does use her own experience working in a clothing factory to add authenticity to these parts of the story showing that the sweatshop conditions have not changed much from the days of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory; only the immigrants are just a different ethnic group now. But this and the great cover of the book are not enough to save this book from being anything but mediocre and forgettable.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I almost gave up on this book but I'm glad I didn't because the ending completely convinced me that this was a worth to read. I was saddened by the choices Kimberly had to make in the end. This story reminds me that the path we go through in life reflects on the choices we make beforehand. This was a bittersweet story.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I can't stress how much this book moved me.It felt so real,I connected so well with the lead character. What I loved best was the main character's drive and determination to keep going and pull her family out of poverty. I loved the narrator too,she changed her tone and voices for different characters. I REALLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.