A great collection of linked short stories (linked in the sense that the characters of each story have tangential relationships to each other) about life as FOB Chinese immigrants. Jenny Zhang doesn't pull any punches with the stories she tells of the struggles of immigrant family life, all of which are told from the perspective of girl children. She weaves a powerful narrative about family, language, culture, poverty without making her characters seem pathetic or overly idealistic, giving us graphic descriptions at times and subtle hints at others to make a full set of interrelated but also strikingly distinct narratives.