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Ghost Forest

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( 5,557 ratings, 1,043 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung follows a young woman reflecting on her family's immigration journey from Hong Kong to Canada. After her father's untimely death, she grapples with her identity and the complex relationships within her family, exploring themes of grief, memory, and cultural dislocation.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate deeply emotional narratives that explore family, grief, and identity. Its poetic prose and reflective storytelling will resonate with those who favour intimate, character-driven fiction.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This powerful (BuzzFeed) debut about love, grief, and family welcomes you into its pages and invites you to linger, staying with you long after you've closed its covers.

"Quietly moving . . . connected by a kind of dream logic . . . deeply felt . . . There is joy and tenderness in . . . Fung's elegant storytelling." - The New York Times Book Review

How do you grieve, if your family doesn't talk about feelings?

This is the question the unnamed protagonist of Ghost Forest considers after her father dies. One of the many Hong Kong "astronaut" fathers, he stays there to work, while the rest of the family immigrated to Canada before the 1997 Handover, when the British returned sovereignty over Hong Kong to China.

As she revisits memories of her father through the years, she struggles with unresolved questions and misunderstandings. Turning to her mother and grandmother for answers, she discovers her own life refracted brightly in theirs.

Buoyant and heartbreaking, Ghost Forest is a slim novel that envelops the reader in joy and sorrow. Fung writes with a poetic and haunting voice, layering detail and abstraction, weaving memory and oral history to paint a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian astronaut family.

"Ghost Forest is the tender/funny book we can all appreciate after a hellish year." - Literary Hub

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Ghost Forest has received high praise for its poetic and delicate handling of grief, characterised by a light touch and beautiful prose. The novel is celebrated for its unique structure that resembles poetry, blending voices and stories within a family with rich, emotive language. Reviewers highlight its inventive approach, stunning emotional impact, and refreshing layout, making it a striking and memorable debut.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780593230985

Publisher: Random House USA Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 06 September 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: Random House Inc

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 203.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 272

About the Author

Pik-Shuen Fung was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Vancouver, Canada. She has received fellowships and residencies from Kundiman, the Asian American Writers' Workshop, Millay Arts, and Storyknife. Ghost Forest, her first book, won the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Literary Fiction.

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