The Translator's Daughter: A Memoir
Grace Loh Prasad
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world
Description
Born in Taiwan, Grace Loh Prasad was two years old when the threat of political persecution under Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship drove her family to the United States, setting her up to become an accidental immigrant. The family did not know when they would be able to go home again; this exile lasted long enough for Prasad to forget her native Taiwanese language and grow up American. Having multilingual parents--including a father who worked as a translator--meant she never had to develop the fluency to navigate Taiwan on visits. But when her parents moved back to Taiwan permanently when she was in college and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, she recognized the urgency of forging a stronger connection with her birthplace before it was too late. As she recounts her journey to reclaim her heritage in The Translator's Daughter, Prasad unfurls themes of memory, dislocation, and loss in all their rich complexity. The result is a unique immigration story about the loneliness of living in a diaspora, the search for belonging, and the meaning of home.
Product Details
Price
$24.95
$23.20
Publisher
Mad Creek Books
Publish Date
March 05, 2024
Pages
268
Dimensions
5.2 X 8.1 X 0.8 inches | 0.7 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780814258972
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
Grace Loh Prasad writes frequently on the topics of diaspora and belonging. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Longreads, The Offing, Hyperallergic, Catapult, Ninth Letter, KHÔRA, and elsewhere. She is a member of The Writers Grotto and Seventeen Syllables, an Asian American Pacific Islander writers' collective. She lives in the Bay Area.
Reviews
"The Translator's Daughter is a stunning tribute to the complexities of growing up as a third-culture kid, an honest and moving chronicle of the 'abundance and loss' of living across languages and continents." --Shawna Yang Ryan, author of Green Island
"You can really feel the two decades Prasad put into this memoir. This is careful, considered prose and thought from a writer to both anticipate and learn from. A marvelous debut." --Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder
"Grace Loh Prasad interrogates the distance between the homes we have and the homes we long for with the compassion and precision of one who has spent her entire life attuned to language. 'We were always half a world apart, ' she writes; her essays bridge that gap in innovative ways, using family photos, mythical women, and Taiwanese films. Moving fluidly between the personal and the political, this memoir is a remarkable addition to Taiwanese American literature." --Jami Nakamura Lin, author of The Night Parade
"The Translator's Daughter is a soulful and profound meditation on family, diaspora, and grief. How do we construct a life far away from our loved ones, and what do we lose? How do we preserve all that we have been given? Grace Loh Prasad tackles these questions with honesty and beauty, while also illuminating Taiwan's culture, history, and hard-won path to democracy. I savored this book." --Michelle Kuo, author of Reading with Patrick
"Prasad's memoir is a tender tribute to her multilingual parents and a sensitive evocation of life as part of the Asian diaspora." --Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness
"A compelling and poignant story that sheds light on Taiwanese culture and recent history. Essential for readers interested in Taiwan in specific or immigration memoirs in general." --Joshua Wallace, Library Journal
"The product of two decades of work, this moving memoir by Bay Area writer Grace Loh Prasad explores a life lived in-between: split by family migrations from Taiwan to the United States and back again, divided by languages and bonds lost and found." --Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle
"Grace Loh Prasad's debut memoir, The Translator's Daughter, is a delicately wrought reckoning with her Taiwanese identity and its dependence on her parents. ... Prasad writes with quiet confidence as she probes her past." --Priyanka Champaneri, Washington Independent Review of Books
"You can really feel the two decades Prasad put into this memoir. This is careful, considered prose and thought from a writer to both anticipate and learn from. A marvelous debut." --Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder
"Grace Loh Prasad interrogates the distance between the homes we have and the homes we long for with the compassion and precision of one who has spent her entire life attuned to language. 'We were always half a world apart, ' she writes; her essays bridge that gap in innovative ways, using family photos, mythical women, and Taiwanese films. Moving fluidly between the personal and the political, this memoir is a remarkable addition to Taiwanese American literature." --Jami Nakamura Lin, author of The Night Parade
"The Translator's Daughter is a soulful and profound meditation on family, diaspora, and grief. How do we construct a life far away from our loved ones, and what do we lose? How do we preserve all that we have been given? Grace Loh Prasad tackles these questions with honesty and beauty, while also illuminating Taiwan's culture, history, and hard-won path to democracy. I savored this book." --Michelle Kuo, author of Reading with Patrick
"Prasad's memoir is a tender tribute to her multilingual parents and a sensitive evocation of life as part of the Asian diaspora." --Katie Noah Gibson, Shelf Awareness
"A compelling and poignant story that sheds light on Taiwanese culture and recent history. Essential for readers interested in Taiwan in specific or immigration memoirs in general." --Joshua Wallace, Library Journal
"The product of two decades of work, this moving memoir by Bay Area writer Grace Loh Prasad explores a life lived in-between: split by family migrations from Taiwan to the United States and back again, divided by languages and bonds lost and found." --Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle
"Grace Loh Prasad's debut memoir, The Translator's Daughter, is a delicately wrought reckoning with her Taiwanese identity and its dependence on her parents. ... Prasad writes with quiet confidence as she probes her past." --Priyanka Champaneri, Washington Independent Review of Books
