Synopses & Reviews
A powerful and wholly original American saga.” San Francisco Chronicle Bich Minh Nguyens previous booksthe acclaimed memoir Stealing Buddhas Dinner and the American Book Awardwinning novel Short Girlsestablished her talents as a writer of keen cultural observation. In Pioneer Girl, Nguyen entwines the Asian American experience with the escapist pleasures of literature, in a dazzling mystery about the origins of Laura Ingalls Wilders classic Little House on the Prairie.
Lee Lien has long dodged her Vietnamese familys rigid expectations by immersing herself in books. But now, jobless with a PhD in literature, she is back at home, working in her familys restaurant under her mothers hypercritical gazeuntil an heirloom from their past sends Lee on a search for clues that may lead back to Wilder herself, transforming strangers lives as well as her own.
Synopsis
"A powerful and wholly original American saga." --San Francisco Chronicle Bich Minh Nguyen's previous books--the acclaimed memoir Stealing Buddha's Dinner and the American Book Award-winning novel Short Girls--established her talents as a writer of keen cultural observation. In Pioneer Girl, Nguyen entwines the Asian American experience with the escapist pleasures of literature, in a dazzling mystery about the origins of Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic Little House on the Prairie.
Lee Lien has long dodged her Vietnamese family's rigid expectations by immersing herself in books. But now, jobless with a PhD in literature, she is back at home, working in her family's restaurant under her mother's hypercritical gaze--until an heirloom from their past sends Lee on a search for clues that may lead back to Wilder herself, transforming strangers' lives as well as her own.
About the Author
BICH MINH NGUYEN (who goes by Beth) teaches literature and creative writing in the Bay Area, where she lives with her husband and their two children.