Shalin Hai-Jew

1 week ago | iexaminer.org | Shalin Hai-Jew

Karuna Riazi’s A Bit of Earth (2023) opens with Maria Latif, newly arrived at an international airport (from Islamabad through Dubai, through Brussels, and to NY in the U.S.). Maria has made herself scarce, hidden under a pile of luggage in the luggage claims area. She is in her “tower of solitude” in the public space, and she does not want to be found. It is 4 a.m. local time, and yet, the airport is bustling.

2 months ago | iexaminer.org | Shalin Hai-Jew

“If the road of life were easy…” (Yog txoj kev ua neeg yooj yim)  — from The Diamond ExplorerReaders first meet Malcolm Yang, a young Hmong-American boy, on the back of a John Deere mower with his father.  The Hmong family are living in a white house on the Minnesota prairie. Malcolm is the youngest of four children, to Lue Txiv (father) and Lia Niam (mother). There are True, Fong, Linda, and Malcolm, the surprise child to a mother in her mid-40s.  So begins Kao Kalia Yang’s The Diamond Explorer.