Next Chapter Bookshop Hosts Jean Kwok

Jean Kwok offers a fresh, clever take on theimmigrant experience in her debut novel, Girlin Translation. At the heart of this semi-autobiographical tale isKimberly, a bright young girl who moves from Hong Kong to Brooklynat the age of 11. Like many newly arrived American immigrants, Kimberly quicklyfinds herself submerged in a double life: successful schoolgirl by day andsweatshop worker by night, living in squalor with barely enough to keep her andher mother afloat.

Girlin Translation is a dazzling fictional debut that invites readersinto the heart and mind of a keen, intelligent girl as she struggles to escapepoverty and overcome culture shock. Through this coming-of-age tale about anunassuming and compassionate youth whose story echoes the voices of countlessimmigrants, Kwok shares some of her own story. Kwok, who likewise emigratedfrom Hong Kong as a girl, writes beautifullyabout the difficulties of growing up between two cultures. Girl in Translation has been selected for the Indie Next List forMay 2010. Kwok will visit Next Chapter Bookshop on May 13 at 7 p.m.

In FracturedTales of Milwaukee’s East Side: A True Story About the Germans, the Poles, theIrish, the Jews, the Italians, and the Greeks, local authors Jim Hanley andThelma Kamuchey transport readers back to Milwaukee’s East Side during the1940s and ’50s. The authors string together wonderful, humorous accounts of menand women coming of age in postwar Milwaukee.The narrators reminisce about childhoods spent on the East Side, sharingbeloved memories of growing up in close-knit neighborhoods, socializing on Oakland Avenue andliving next to one of the Great Lakes. Fractured Tales of Milwaukee’s East Sideshowcases our great city with beauty, vitality and character. Hanley will speakat Boswell Book Co. on Saturday, May 15, at 2 p.m.