A Tender Age
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A Tender Age
Narrated by:
Keong Sim
Buy Now for $21.35
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Narrated by:
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Keong Sim
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By:
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Chang-rae Lee
Summary
'He has redefined not only what it means to be American, but the fabric of the Great American Novel itself.' Jhumpa Lahiri
'A frighteningly accurate depiction of adolescence that offers no easy answers… Another powerful work from one of America’s best authors.’ Boston Globe starred review
‘A tour de force… One of contemporary American literature’s major chroniclers of manhood.’ Atlantic
‘Moving… a classic bildungsroman.’ New York Times Book Review
From the Pulitzer Prize shortlisted novelist, a story of guilt, innocence, and a boy on the cusp of adolescence
A spellbinding exploration of masculinity and family dynamics as seen through the confused eyes of a prepubescent child of immigrants, A Tender Age joins the rich tradition of the coming-of-age novel. The natural descendent of characters like Huckleberry Finn and Holden Caulfield, Korean-American Jeon-Gi is torn between competing ideas of himself. At home, his working-class parents dote on him. Outside, he is part of a roving pack of kids with dominion over a derelict baseball field, weedy parking lot, and rusty jungle gym. Getting into and out of trouble is all-consuming. But the summer he turns eleven, he becomes embroiled in a staggering series of events reverberating far beyond himself and his family.
Devastating in its emotional precision, A Tender Age captures a family and community in striking distance of the American dream, and a young person on the precipice of adult knowledge, looking at his own culpability and looking away - then thinking about it for the rest of his life.
‘Wonderfully evokes the unmatched urgency of this period of childhood, when everything, from a footrace to a girl’s smile, feels like a matter of life and death.’ Wall Street Journal
Critic Reviews
Praise for Chang-rae Lee
'I have no choice but to ask: Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?' Los Angeles Times
'Nothing is rushed; nothing is overlooked… Lee understands that in art and in stories what is perhaps most valuable is not what can be explained but what can be felt.' Boston Globe
'The prose Chang-rae Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic...beautifully made.' New Yorker
'[Chang-rae Lee] explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love.' Washington Post
'Lee’s writing style, as usual, is alive with wit and satiric social commentary… boisterous and fun.' US National Public Radio
'I have no choice but to ask: Who is a greater novelist than Chang-rae Lee?' Los Angeles Times
'Nothing is rushed; nothing is overlooked… Lee understands that in art and in stories what is perhaps most valuable is not what can be explained but what can be felt.' Boston Globe
'The prose Chang-rae Lee writes is elliptical, riddling, poetic...beautifully made.' New Yorker
'[Chang-rae Lee] explores the fundamental human desires to be seen and to love.' Washington Post
'Lee’s writing style, as usual, is alive with wit and satiric social commentary… boisterous and fun.' US National Public Radio
No reviews yet
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