Book Summary and Reviews of The Outer Country by Davin Malasarn

Book Summary

This tender, elegant debut examines the struggle of keeping a family together when secrets threaten to pull it apart.

Estranged sisters Manda and Siripon have not seen each other in years when Manda travels to Los Angeles for the birth of Siripon's son, Ben. The women have lived separate lives since they were teenagers in Phet Buri, Thailand, when their parents decided to send one of their children to America, the foreign land they call "the Outer Country." As the eldest and the protector of her younger siblings, Manda assumed she would be the first to go. To her shock, their parents chose Siripon, the reliable, obedient second child instead. With one parental choice, the sisters became rivals.

Following their cool separation across continents, the sisters reunite to raise Ben. Manda, outrunning a devastating tragedy from her past, becomes a second mother to him, an only child who fills her with fierce joy. But as Ben grows increasingly effeminate, that joy turns to fear. Believing that the spirit of a woman has attached itself to her beloved nephew – and that her sister won't do what has to be done to fix matters – Manda secretly arranges a Buddhist exorcism for him. The ceremony sets off a decade of anxiety-induced vomiting, with Ben becoming the object of torment and bullying at school, even as his memory of the ritual fades into early childhood oblivion.

As Ben grows into his own queer self-becoming, he must confront the scars of his exorcism and learn how to live amidst the family damage, where one has to tread softly. But how long can a family go on with secrets so large pressing on their chests?

From the mangrove forests of Phet Buri to a modest stucco bungalow in Los Angeles to the ivy and sandstone quadrangles of Stanford, The Outer Country is at once epic and intimate in scope, a breathtaking journey across borders and generations.