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Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard...
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Unpassing

by Chia Chia Lin
Unpassing

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780374279363
ISBN10: 0374279365
Condition: Standard
DustJacket: Standard

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Synopses & Reviews

Synopsis

One of Esquire's 25 Most Anticipated Books of 2019

A searing debut novel that explores community, identity, and the myth of the American dream through an immigrant family in Alaska

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher, but ultimately more profound, reality.

Synopsis

One of Esquire, The Rumpus, Literary Hub and Electric Literature's Most Anticipated Books of 2019

A searing debut novel that explores community, identity, and the myth of the American dream through an immigrant family in Alaska

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher, but ultimately more profound, reality.

Synopsis

One of The New York Times Book Review's 14 Books to Watch For in May, one of the Wall Street Journal Magazine's 12 Best Books of Spring, one of TIME's Best New Books to Read in May, and one of Cosmopolitan's 14 Best Books Coming Out in May. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Southern Living, The Rumpus, The Millions, Literary Hub and Electric Literature

A searing debut novel that explores community, identity, and the myth of the American dream through an immigrant family in Alaska

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher, but ultimately more profound, reality.

Synopsis

"A singularly vast and captivating novel . . . What makes Lin's novel such an important book is the extent to which it probes America's mythmaking about itself." --Brian Haman, The New York Times Book Review

One of The New York Times Book Review's 14 Books to Watch For in May, one of the Wall Street Journal Magazine's 12 Best Books of Spring, one of TIME's Best New Books to Read in May, and one of Cosmopolitan's 14 Best Books Coming Out in May. Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by the Los Angeles Times, Esquire, Southern Living, The Rumpus, The Millions, Literary Hub and Electric Literature

A searing debut novel that explores community, identity, and the myth of the American dream through an immigrant family in Alaska

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher, but ultimately more profound, reality.

Synopsis

Finalist for the 2019 NBCC John Leonard Prize for Best First Book. Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. One of Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Debut Novels of 2019. Named one of the Best Books of 2019 by TIME, The Washington Post, and Esquire. A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice.

"A singularly vast and captivating novel . . . What makes Lin's novel such an important book is the extent to which it probes America's mythmaking about itself." --The New York Times Book Review

A searing debut novel that explores community, identity, and the myth of the American dream through an immigrant family in Alaska

In Chia-Chia Lin's debut novel, The Unpassing, we meet a Taiwanese immigrant family of six struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska. The father, hardworking but beaten down, is employed as a plumber and repairman, while the mother, a loving, strong-willed, and unpredictably emotional matriarch, holds the house together. When ten-year-old Gavin contracts meningitis at school, he falls into a deep, nearly fatal coma. He wakes up a week later to learn that his little sister Ruby was infected, too. She did not survive.

Routine takes over for the grieving family: the siblings care for each other as they befriend a neighboring family and explore the woods; distance grows between the parents as they deal with their loss separately. But things spiral when the father, increasingly guilt ridden after Ruby's death, is sued for not properly installing a septic tank, which results in grave harm to a little boy. In the ensuing chaos, what really happened to Ruby finally emerges.

With flowing prose that evokes the terrifying beauty of the Alaskan wilderness, Lin explores the fallout after the loss of a child and the way in which a family is forced to grieve in a place that doesn't yet feel like home. Emotionally raw and subtly suspenseful, The Unpassing is a deeply felt family saga that dismisses the American dream for a harsher, but ultimately more profound, reality.


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Tonstant Weader , May 31, 2019 (view all comments by Tonstant Weader)
The Unpassing, by Chia-Chia Lin, is an extraordinary story of the disintegration of a Taiwanese family who came to America, choosing Alaska for their immigrant dream. It is narrated by Gavin, a young boy who fell sick and into a coma, waking up a week later to discover his younger sister Ruby had died as well. His school had an outbreak of meningitis. Because as a child, he lacks the words to express his feelings of guilt and his parents are too full of their own grief, anger, and guilt, they have no space to understand their children are also suffering, this book overflows with unexpressed pain. Gavin’s family is poor, their small and narrow home surrounded by open space and woods. The anticipated development of a neighborhood as unrealized as all the rest of their dreams. Their poverty is exacerbated by a personal injury lawsuit against the father who is accused of a faulty septic tank installation that poisoned a young child. The father feels hopeless to defend himself, “;Once we entered that room, you see, it was over. It was their room, not ours.’ Gripping the wheel now, he shifted and straightened. ‘And when has a room ever been ours?’” I loved The Unpassing even though it broke my heart time and again.This family was so close, living on top of each other in space and time, with very little relief in the form of outsiders. The kids had a few friends, a relatively affluent white family on the oher side of the woods, but the parents were isolated even from each other. They were, as Lin said in another context, ” too close—so close we couldn’t see each other.” Lin does a phenomenal job of writing in the language of a ten-year-old without sounding juvenile or false. Gavin thinks deeply and says many profound things in the simple language of childhood. Even when it is clearly adult reflection on childhood, Lin maintains the beautiful language of simplicty. There is deep understanding of grief and alienation in The Unpassing as well as deep compassion for people in despair.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780374279363
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
05/07/2019
Publisher:
FARRAR STRAUS & GIROUX
Pages:
288
Height:
1.10IN
Width:
5.70IN
Author:
Chia Chia Lin
Author:
Chia-Chia Lin

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