Transparency: Stories

With a deceptively simple yet graceful style, and in the tradition of Lara Vapnyar, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Gish Jen, Frances Hwang captures the thousand minor battles waged in the homes of immigrants--struggles to preserve timehonored traditions or break free of them, to maintain authority or challenge it, and to take advantage of modern excesses without diluting one's ethnic identity.

In "Garden City," a weary Chinese couple, struggling to evict their deadbeat tenant, is forced to face the aftermath of their teenage son's death from cancer. And in "The Old Gentleman," a daughter becomes alienated from her father when he finds love--or what he thinks could be love--in his old age. Frances Hwang is a powerful talent, and TRANSPARENCY not only showcases her myriad gifts, but also announces the arrival of an exciting new voice.

Author: Frances Hwang
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Published: 04/18/2007
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780316166935
Award: Literary Award - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/12/2007 pg. 64
Library Journal 04/15/2007 pg. 80

About the Author
Frances Hwang has a B.A. from Brown, an M.A. from the University of Virginia, and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She has attended the MacDowell Colony and Provincetown creative writing workshops, and she was the Olive B. O'Connor Creative Writing Fellow at Colgate University. She lives in Berkeley, California.