You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins | ARC Review

Friday, August 25, 2017
Title: You Bring the Distant Near
Author: Mitali Perkins
Publisher: BYR
Publication Date: September 12th, 2017
Source: Netgalley
Buy the Book: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository
This elegant novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations, You Bring the Distant Near explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse. From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity. Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.

What I thought

I loved this book. I just wanted you guys to know that because it's probably going to be an epic gush session of just how darn beautiful this book is. As stated in the description for the book we follow three generations of Indian-American women in this novel and their journey is beautiful and real and very raw.

I want to start off talking about the characters. We have Ranee, matriarch of the family and a very conservative Indian. She was born in Bangladesh and throughout the book she holds on to her beliefs and yet manages to change. She is made of steel, yet allowed to grieve and make mistakes and it's a beautiful representation of what women are: imperfect, strong and complex. Then we have Sonia and Starry, who are her teenage daughters. They too brim with life and the desire to find themselves in the world and in the complicated realities of their new home. Throughout the book you fall in love with them and their dreams, their struggles. Last, we have Anna and Chantal (or Shinti as mostly everyone calls her), the daughters of both Starry and Sonia and man, do they struggle with their identity. For one, Shinti is mixed and finds that she isn't enough for both sides, while Anna is American in name but her heart is Bengali. The characters were all so beautifully complex and speak to different kinds of the immigrant experience so beautifully.



Next, I want to write about the writing because SWEET LORD WAS IT GORGEOUS. At times it felt like I was reading poetry or a song, but it was still very firmly prose. It was just so beautiful and deep and very distinct between characters, and yet overflowing with style. Not to mention it just sucked me in right off the bat. I started reading this book at around 10 and didn't go to sleep until I finished it at around 2:30 am. It was just that good.

So, really if you want to read a beautiful book about three different generations of women and their struggles and their experience you should definitely pick up this book. YOU KNOW WHAT? You should pick up this book anyway. Not only because YAY DIVERSITY and #ownvoices books but because it's just so darn beautiful.

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