Jenny Tinghui Zhang's 'Four Treasures of the Sky' wins Idaho Book of the Year Award
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Chinese American author Jenny Tinghui Zhang has won the 2022 Idaho Book of the Year Award by the Idaho Library Association for her debut novel “Four Treasures of the Sky.”
About the book: Zhang’s historical fiction novel follows the story of a Chinese girl who is kidnapped and brought to the U.S. in the late 1800s, a time when anti-Asian sentiment rose throughout the Western frontier. The story tackles the tragedy behind the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
“I've heard a lot of people describe the book as timely and, like, now, more than ever — that sort of phrasing,” Zhang told NPR.
"You know, I don't look at that as a good thing. It's unfortunate that it's timely. It's unfortunate that it is still relevant. And it just — it didn't even feel like I was writing about history. It just felt like so present day and in the moment. And I know this book is historical fiction, but when I look at it, it's not history, and it doesn't feel like fiction. It is very much our reality right now and for a long time before right now."
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About the author: Zhang, who was born in Changchun, China, is currently based in Austin, Texas. Her work has appeared in The Cut, The New York Times, Texas Highways and The Rumpus, among others.
She wrote “Four Treasures of the Sky” during the COVID-19 pandemic when the U.S. saw an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes. Her novel, which was published in April last year, became a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.
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Honorable mention: Japanese American writer Lawrence Matsuda received an honorable mention from the Idaho Library Association Book Award Committee for his book “Shape Shifter: A Minidoka Concentration Camp Legacy.” The book is a collection of Matsuda’s poems that express the trauma of his family's imprisonment in the Minidoka Concentration Camp during World War II.
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