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Do you remember where you bought that book? That book which has been lying on your bookshelf for at least six months? Or maybe you (unlike me) don’t buy books on a whim… unable to ignore the temptation of yet another novel?

This one I remember well. It was our last morning in New York last April and we had finally made it to the Tenement Museum in the Lower East side. Not only did the visit totally exceed our expectations (bearing in mind EVERYONE had told us we had to include it in our itinery) but the bookshop, housed within the museum, literally knocked our socks off. [This may have been one of 3 books I lugged home in my already bulging suitcase.]

Kimberly Chang is our the heroine in Jean Kwok’s debut novel. Arriving in New York, fresh from Hong Kong, in the early 1980s, Kimberly’s mother earns two cents an hour in a sweatshop while her 11-year-old daughter faces the challenge of school. Neither of them speak a word of English and they live in what could only be described as extreme poverty.

An immigrant herself, Kwok tells the tale vividly. Her view of the city, her struggles at school, her work in the factory after school and her teenage angst amid it all. As they live and learn to survive straddling two cultures, we journey and empathise with Kimberly all the way.

I was thoroughly absorbed in this novel. Some have called it predictable and criticized the ending for being too clichéd. I would have been disappointed if it had been any less so.

[Next up is The Day Before Happiness by Erri De Luca]

A massive part of my summer plans (rd: indulgence) is going to be having my head permanently in a book. My bedside pile has grown + grown over recent months when I just haven’t had the time to read more than a page*. So last week I banned myself from buying ANY MORE… and the binge began.

Shtum was on the top of the pile so I grabbed it (and another) for our week in Norfolk. A debut novel from Jem Lester centred around Jonah his profoundly autistic 11 year old, this darkly comic tale is strangely gripping. As you can probably guess from the title, Jonah can’t speak. But it’s worse than that. He is incontinent, at times angry and wild and certainly making no progress at his primary school. And so Shtum traces the long war his parents fight to get local authority funding for an eye-wateringly expensive specialist residential school which would undoubtedly be the best place for their son.

All this would be bad enough but – adding insult to injury Ben (our narrator and Jonah’s father) is forced out of the family home (with Jonah in tow) by his wife (we learn why later on) and, grudgingly, has to move in with his elderly father. Ben, riddled with self-pity, is also struggling with an alcohol problem and a distinct lack of grip on his life.

Agonisingly heartbreaking and utterly touching, Lester keeps his roller-coaster of a story twisting and turning all the way to the end. No spoilers here as I really want you to read this novel. I more than sense his story is full of first-hand experience, making it all the more poignant and important to read and… let’s face it… we all think there’s something wrong with our kids and wonder how we would cope if there really was.

[*I did read Beyond Happiness by Anthony Seldon… but that’s coming up in a post of its own…  Next up is Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok]