Useful Phrases for Immigrants: Stories [Paperback]

In the title story of this timely and innovative collection, a young woman wearing a Prada coat attempts to redeem a coupon for plastic storage bins while her in-laws are at home watching the Chinese news and taking her private phone calls. It is the lively and wise juxtaposition of cultures, generations, and emotions that characterize May-lee Chais amazing stories. Within them, readers will find a complex blend of cultures spanning China, the Chinese diaspora in America, and finally, the world at large.

With luminous prose and sharp-eyed observations, Chai reveals her characters hopes and fears, and our own: a grieving historian seeking solace from an old lover in Beijing, a young girl discovering her immigrant mother's infidelity, workers constructing a shopping mall in central China who make a shocking discovery. Families struggle with long-held grudges, reinvent traditions, and make mysterious visits to shadowy strangers from their pastall rendered with economy and beauty.

With hearts that break and sometimes mend, with families who fight and sometimes forgive, the timely stories inUseful Phrases for Immigrantsilluminate complicated lives with empathy and passion. Chai's stories are essential reading for an increasingly globalized world.

This collection has already garnered several distinctions. It was selected for the Bakwin Award by judge Tayari Jones (An American Marriage,Silver Sparrow), who called it essential reading, and in January 2018, R. O. Kwon listed it among 46 Books by Women of Color to Read in 2018, published inElectric Literature. An early blurb by Edward P. Jones joins Tayari Jones in praise, calling this book a splendid gem of a story collection . . . Chais work is a grand event. In July 2018, Lydia Kiesling listed it onThe Millions' Most Anticipated: Great Second-Half 2018 Book Preview. Other accolades are bound to follow, given Chais stature in the literary community lCš