by Carrie Dos Santos –
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This month we celebrate the incredible breadth of cultural, scientific, and artistic contributions that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have given over the centuries. The Asian American experience is just as rich and varied as their cultural homelands. Below is a selection of notable contemporary novels by Asian Americans available for checkout:
- “The Leavers,” by Lisa Ko, is a 2017 National Book Award finalist and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize. This insightful novel is told by both an undocumented Chinese immigrant single mother, and her son, who is born in America.
- “A Tale for the Time Being,” by Ruth Ozeki, does not technically take place in the U.S. Rather, a writer on Vancouver Island, Canada, finds a lunchbox washed up on the beach. The contents reveal the life of a Japanese American teenage girl, and how she intends to end her life due to bullying.
- “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng, is a critically-acclaimed novel set in 1990s American Suburbia. A free-spirited artist and her shy teenage daughter rent an apartment from a seemingly perfect suburban family.
- Graphic novels by Asian Americans such as George Takei and Gene Luen Yang depict the experiences of Asian Americans in the 20th century.
These are just some of the great books by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders available at the Middlesex County Public Library system’s Deltaville and Urbanna branches.
