Kirjahaku

From the bestselling author of Superfan comes a haunting novel about the demons passed down through five generations of women in a Chinese Canadian family, and what it might take for them to finally break free of the past. Single mother Alice Chow is drowning. With a booming online business, a resentful teenage daughter, a screen-obsessed son, and a secret boyfriend, she can never get everything done in a day. So it's a relief when Alice wakes up one morning to find the counters are clear, the kids' rooms are tidy, and orders are neatly packed and labelled. But she doesn't remember staying up late to take care of things. As the strange pattern continues, she realizes someone--or something--has been doing her chores for her. Alice knows she should feel uneasy, but the extra time lets her connect with her children and with her hard-edged mother, who has started to share shocking stories from their family history--beginning with the horrors that befell her great-grandmother, who was imprisoned as a comfort woman in Hong Kong during the Second World War. But the family's demons--both real and subconscious, old and new--are about to become impossible to ignore. Set against the gleaming backdrop of contemporary Vancouver, The Hunger We Pass Down is a devastating, horror-tinged novel about how unspoken legacies of violence can shape a family. It follows the relentless spectre of intergenerational trauma as it is handed down from mother to daughter, and asks what it might take to break the cycle--heroism, depravity, or both.

A sharply observed memoir in pieces that uses one woman's life-long love affair with pop culture as a lens to explore family, identity, grief, the power of female rage, and what it's cost to resist the trap of being a good Chinese girl. For most of Jen Sookfong Lee's life, pop culture was an escape from family tragedy and a means of fitting in with the larger culture around her. Anne of Green Gables promised her that, despite losing her father at the age of twelve, one day she might still have the loving family of her dreams, and Princess Diana was proof that maybe there was more to being a good girl after all. And yet as Jen grew up, she began to recognize the ways in which pop culture was not made for someone like her--the child of Chinese immigrant parents who looked for safety in the invisibility afforded by embracing model minority myths. Ranging from the unattainable perfection of Gwyneth Paltrow and the father-figure familiarity of Bob Ross, to the long shadow cast by The Joy Luck Club and the life lessons she has learned from Rihanna, Jen weaves together key moments in pop culture with stories of her own failings, longings, and struggles as she navigates the minefields that come with carving her own path as an Asian woman, single mother, and writer. And with great wit, bracing honesty, and a deep appreciation for the ways culture shapes us, she draws direct lines between the spectacle of the popular, the intimacy of our personal bonds, and the social foundations of our collective obsessions.

What drives people to search for new homes? From war zones to politics, there are many reasons why people have always searched for a place to call home. In Finding Home: The Journey of Immigrants and Refugees we discover how human migration has shaped our world. We explore its origins and the current issues facing immigrants and refugees today, and we hear the first-hand stories of people who have moved across the globe looking for safety, security and happiness. Author Jen Sookfong Lee shares her personal experience of growing up as the child of immigrants and gives a human face to the realities of being an immigrant or refugee today. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Jordan Peele's Us meets The School For Good Mothers in this horror-tinged intergenerational saga, as a single mother's doppelganger forces her to confront the legacy of violence that has shaped every woman in their family. Single mother Alice Chow is drowning. With a booming online cloth diaper shop, her resentful teenage daughter Luna, and her screen-obsessed son Luca, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It's all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night. It's a relief when Alice wakes up one morning and everything has been done. The counters are clear, the kids' rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. But no one confesses they've helped, and Alice doesn't remember staying up late. Someone-or something-has been doing her chores for her.Alice should be uneasy, but the extra time lets her connect with her children and with her hard-edged mother, who begins to share their haunted family history from Alice's great-grandmother, a comfort woman during WWII, through to Alice herself. But the family demons, both real and subconscious, are about to become impossible to ignore. Sharp and incisive, The Hunger We Pass Down traces the ways intergenerational trauma transforms from mother to daughter, and asks what it might take to break that cycle.

Personal stories of surviving after the trauma of sexual assault.In the era of #MeToo, we’ve become better at talking about sexual assault. But sexual assault isn’t limited to a single, terrible moment of violence: it stays with survivors, following them wherever they go.Through the voices of twelve diverse writers, Whatever Gets You Through offers a powerful look at the narrative of sexual assault not covered by the headlines—the weeks, months, and years of survival and adaptation that people live through in its aftermath. With a foreword by Jessica Valenti, an extensive introduction by editors Stacey May Fowles and Jen Sookfong Lee, and contributions from acclaimed literary voices such as Alicia Elliott, Elisabeth de Mariaffi, Heather O’Neill, and Juliane Okot Bitek, the collection explores some of the many different forms that survival can take.From ice hockey to kink, boxing to tapestry-making, these striking personal essays address experiences as varied as the writers who have lived them. With candor and insight, each writer shares their own unique account of enduring: the everyday emotional pain and trauma, but also the incredible resilience and strength that can emerge in the aftermath of sexual assault.Contributors:Gwen BenawayJuliane Okot BitekElly DanicaAmber DawnAlicia ElliottKaryn FreedmanHeather O’NeillElisabeth de MariaffiLauren McKeonSoraya PalmerLeah Lakshmi Piepzna-SamarasinhaKai Cheng Thom

Jordan Peele's Us meets The School For Good Mothers in this horror-tinged intergenerational saga, as a single mother's doppelganger forces her to confront the legacy of violence that has shaped every woman in their family. "Genuinely frightening story of rape, abuse, and neglect. A bold story of intergenerational trauma that creates spooky scares out of real-life atrocities." --Kirkus, STARRED Review BREAK YOUR MOTHER'S CURSE . . . BEFORE IT CONSUMES YOU TOO. Single mom Alice Chow is drowning. Between a booming small business, a resentful teenage daughter, a screen-obsessed son, and a secret boyfriend, Alice can never get everything done in a day. It's all she can do to just collapse on the couch with a bottle of wine every night. One morning, Alice wakes up and everything has been done: the counters are clear, the kids' rooms are tidy, orders are neatly packed and labeled. As the pattern continues, she realizes that someone--or something--has been doing her chores for her. Alice knows she should be uneasy, but she's too tired to care. The extra time lets her connect with her hard-edged mother, who has started to share their family history--a "curse" beginning with her great-grandmother, who was imprisoned as a comfort woman in Hong Kong during World War II. Lurking in the corners of Alice's new normal, those family demons are as real as ever . . . and about to become impossible to ignore. Following the relentless specter of generational trauma as it is handed down from mother to daughter, The Hunger We Pass Down asks what it might take to break the cycle: heroism, depravity, or both.