Tuesday, February 13, 2018

YOU BRING THE DISTANT NEAR by Mitali Perkins.  New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2017.  303p.  ISBN 978-037430490-4 hc. $17.99    Gr. 8-12     Y.A. FIC


The story begins in the 1970's as two sisters who have lived in three different countries learn to become American.  Ethnically Bengali, they are upwardly mobile and defined by their father's job.  Tara, the older sister, is obedient and adheres to cultural tradition, but Sonia questions everything that makes her different from her American peers.  She crosses the line when she falls in love with a boy from Harlem who does not fit the mold that her traditional mother envisions.  Through their stories, the history of Ranee, their mother, unfolds to reveal a love story of her own.  Fast forward to the  third generation in America - the daughters of Tara and Sonia, who know their parents and grandmother very well, are totally modern American teens, and strive to blend the Bengali traditions of the past with their very American families.
Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI



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