Dandelion
“Jennifer Hui gives a moving performance…[and] creates a quiet intensity that engages listeners in the characters’ passionate debates about identity, heritage, and where they belong…Hui’s authentic intonations and pronunciations convey the diversity of cultures in this insightful story...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
AudioFile
Winner of the 2018 Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award
When Lily was eleven years old, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family, never to be seen or heard from again. Now a new mother herself, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Swee Hua.
Lily recalls the spring of 1987, growing up in a small British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families. Lily’s previously stateless father wanted to blend seamlessly into Canadian life, while her mother, alienated and isolated, longed to return to Brunei. Years later, still affected by Swee Hua’s disappearance, Lily’s family is stubbornly silent to her questioning. But eventually, an old family friend provides a clue that sends Lily to Southeast Asia to find out the truth.
Dandelion is a beautifully written and affecting novel about motherhood, family secrets, migration, isolation, and mental illness. With clarity and care, it delves into the many ways we define home, identity, and above all, belonging.
Praise