SEARCHING FOR SYLVIE LEE by Jean Kwok (Girl in Translation) is her latest, much anticipated novel about
two sisters born after their parents immigrated to New York City from
China. Sylvie is the elder sister by
several years and she was actually raised by cousins and a grandmother in the
Netherlands until age nine when she joined the family in New York, helping care
for Amy, a then-two-year-old toddler.
Now an adult, Sylvie returns to the
Netherlands to be with her terminally ill Grandmother, but disappears after her
Grandmother’s death. That prompts Amy to fly to Europe, but the police are
relatively unconcerned, the cousins are kind of mean and uncaring and Amy
struggles with language differences as she tries to find Sylvie.
There’s some menacing suspense in the air and
obvious questions about whom Amy should trust, but the story moves slowly. Flashbacks told by Sylvie alternate with Amy’s
recounting of her search and with their mother’s thoughts. SEARCHING FOR SYLVIE LEE uses family relationships, secrets, and assumptions (including
some racial and immigrant stereotypes) to show how little we really know each
other. Kwok’s novel received a starred review from Booklist.
