Tiger Daughter by Australian author Rebecca Lim (Mercy series) arrives Stateside already highly celebrated. Lim's novel might initially suggest another familiar immigration story, but her deeply empathic observations ensure an immersive coming-of-age exploration that should resonate regardless of readers' backgrounds.
For Wen and her mother, "Every day is like a test." Wen must be the perfect daughter for her China-to-Australia immigrant parents: excellent grades, silent respect, absolute obedience. When Wen wrote a letter to her aunt in China, mentioning her father's strictness, it was returned as undeliverable, and Dad read it: "he went into my bedroom, and tore down every poster and picture and letter from friends that I had stuck on my walls and set them all on fire in the backyard." Dad was a "promising young doctor in China," but his failure to pass the Australian exams means he's "the angriest, most ruthless floor manager" at a Chinese restaurant. Mum, too, must meet Dad's expectations: oversee Wen's every movement, dress impeccably, and cook eight-course meals on Dad's day off, "or there will be problems." School is "the safest place in [Wen's] life," where Henry, a recent Chinese immigrant, is her closest friend. Their teacher encourages and enables the pair to apply for an "amazing, government-funded selective school." Tragedy almost derails their efforts, but Wen defies parental expectations for emboldening results.
"Tiger Daughter is a migrant story for children actually written by a migrant," Lim shares in a note to teachers and librarians. "Not someone 'imagining,' from inside their relative privilege." Lim also reveals that, despite publishing more than 20 books while working as a commercial lawyer for one of Australia's largest firms, she experienced racist abuse in her own garden during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Lim infuses her fiction with raw honesty, which exposes unchecked bullying, emotional and physical abuse, gender inequity, the threat of sexual violence, and the fatal cost of unacknowledged mental illness. Lest readers find her narrative overly dark, Lim deftly balances the dysfunction with courageous, empowering moments, inspired by new friendships at school for Wen, and an employment opportunity for Wen's isolated mother. In ultimately championing empathy and kindness, Lim's Tiger Daughter delivers a comforting balm for young audiences. --Terry Hong, BookDragon
Shelf Talker: Rebecca Lim champions empathy and kindness in a resonating coming-of-age novel about an Australian teen struggling to find her voice despite her restrictive Chinese immigrant parents.