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 time-honored 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.