RaveThe Los Angeles Review of Books... disquieting ... Amid horrific displays of mistreatment, disastrous run-ins with nature, and a sadness that threatens to swallow them whole, the book offers depictions of tenderness and the fierce love a family has for one another ... Yu never lets the reader lose sight of the youthfulness of her protagonist ... Yu captures the playfulness in her young characters, even when they are acting out, practicing their new English swear words, and losing patience with each other ... Yu employs gorgeous imagery ... This is a family in a constant state of urgency, and also a state of waiting. The way they talk to each other reflects this tension: terse speech thick with understated meaning. The parents, Bahar and Omid, share an electrical current that sparks and ripples between them in the silences.
