One World of Literature addresses students' concerns about social relevance in their reading, and their growing interest in the literature of other cultures. This provocative anthology brings together fiction, poetry, and drama by twentieth-century authors from around the world.

One World of Literature

Literature & Fiction

Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

Norman Spencer

Literary

Cengage Learning'

"Lim writes with such aching precision, revealing and insightfully analyzing her changing roles as woman, immigrant, scholar, and Other."—San Francisco Chronicle on Shirley Lim's memoir Among the White Moon Faces
In her first novel, critically-acclaimed author Shirley Geok-lin Lim traces the unconventional development of an extended and very unlikely family. At the center of this captivating "un-love" story is Li An — a smart and strong-willed Malaysian woman of Chinese descent who finds herself attracted to an American Peace Corp volunteer, Chester. Tragedy touches Li An's family as anti-Chinese riots break out amidst the politically charged atmosphere of 1969 Malaysia. On the same night, Li An and Chester are drawn together at last, setting a course that will change both their lives.
After Chester leaves behind Malaysia and a pregnant Li An, this ambitious three-part novel jumps ahead in time to take on his life in 1980s America. As the possibility of a life without children grows for Chester and his ambitious wife Meryl, Chester is haunted by thoughts of the child he abandoned. He returns only to find that a very independent Li An has built a solid life for herself and her daughter amidst a very non traditional family of women.
As Lim'scharacters try to find a way back to their pasts and each other, they are caught up in the larger tensions between East and West, women and men, freedom and responsibility. With insight and wit Lim shows us that what we expect is not always what we get, but all roads lead us, ultimately, to our deepest selves.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim is the author of Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands as well as Two Dreams: New and Selected Stories, and Crossing the Peninsula and other Poems. She is professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Joss and Gold

United States

The Feminist Press at CUNY

Modern Secrets

Contemporary

Dangaroo Press

This “fascinating autobiography” from an award-winning Asian-American female author “reads like a novel” ( The Washington Post Book World ).\nWith insight, candor, and grace, Shirley Geok-lin Lim recalls her path from her poverty-stricken childhood in war-torn Malaysia to her new and exciting yet uncertain womanhood in America. Grappling to secure a place for herself in the United States, she is often caught between the stifling traditions of the old world and the harsh challenges of the new. But throughout her journey, she is sustained by her “warrior” spirit, gradually overcoming her sense of alienation to find a new identity as an Asian American professor, wife, mother, and, above all, an impassioned writer.\nIn Among the White Moon Faces , Lim offers a memorable rendering of immigrant women’s experience and a reflection upon the homelands we leave behind, the homelands we discover, and the homelands we hold within ourselves.\n“What sets Among the White Moon Faces apart is that Lim writes with such aching precision, revealing and insightfully analyzing her changing roles as woman, immigrant, scholar, and Other.” — San Francisco Chronicle Book Review\n“Lim’s descriptions are both lyrical and precise.” — Publishers Weekly\n“Evocative writing bolstered by insights into colonialism, race relations, and the concept of the ‘other’. . . . This is an entrancing memoir.” — Kirkus Reviews

Among the White Moonfaces: Memoirs of a Nyonya Feminist

Times Books Int.

"Sister Swing" chronicles the growing up years of three sisters. It follows their transplant from a relatively sheltered life in Malaysia to the raw realities of the United States. It illuminates the complex relationships between the sisters, and gently but firmly explores the morals, values and mindsets of growing up Asian in a Western world.

Sister Swing

Marshall Cavendish Editions

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Books by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim