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A poignant and vividly illustrated graphic memoir about a young woman's search for belonging as her immigrant family moves between Canada and China.
Lily isn't sure where home is anymore. Her family is constantly on the move, resettling in different towns across Canada and, eventually, in Shanghai, China. Her father plays the role of primary caregiver while her mother is absent for long periods of time. When she reappears, her strange behavior turns Lily's life upside down. As Lily enters her college years, she strives to better understand her family and her place in the world. But can she escape the inherited trauma passed down by her immigrant parents?
"The saturated, limited color palette of this visually stunning work underscores the heavy emotions. Particularly affecting is Qian's pronounced use of black, which replicates the recurring absences that marked her young life." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Qian's background as a designer shines through colorful pages, delivering brilliant, lineless illustrations that accurately capture the muddled feeling of revisiting complicated memories." ―School Library Journal
"Despite a disjointed narrative through line, Qian's art seems to speak to the unspeakable, to capture what words cannot say." ―Booklist
"In beautiful images, Qian talks about what it means to feel abandoned by a parent, to have to abandon places and people you love―and to abandon yourself as a result. In fragmentary scenes, the author gently reveals herself to us as she reconstructs her childhood and youth in search for a new identity." ―Nora Krug, author of Belonging and Diaries of War
"Lily Kim Qian's beautiful colors and symbolic and poetic illustrations soothe wounded hearts. Until We Meet Again is a touching story of courage and warmth for anyone who has fallen and is trying to get back on their feet." ―Keum Suk Gendry-Kim, author of Grass and Dog Days
This information about Until We Meet Again was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lily Kim Qian is a Chinese-Canadian artist based in New York. She graduated with a BFA in illustration from Parsons the New School of Design in 2021. Along with her illustration practice, she works as a Junior Designer at Penguin Young Readers. Until We Meet Again is her debut graphic novel with First Second books. In her spare time, she enjoys volunteering at shelters and hanging out with her very own cat assistant, Edgar.
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