I loved this story!! Young David Kim immigrates to the United States from Korea in the 1980’s with his mother and sister. Their father has already been in America for the past five years trying to build a business and getting some money behind him before his family re-joined him. He owns a store in New Jersey called “East Meets West” in the Peddlerstown Mall and sells various items such as: kimonos, candles, vases, dragons and other miscellaneous items.

The chapters alternate between stories told by each family member and other people who own stores at the mall. Every character in the story is interesting, and has a convincing story of their own to tell. Mr. Hong and his family become friends with the Kim’s and near the end of the book the Kim’s suffer a tragedy together with the Hong family.

The story is gentle, funny, beautifully written and is about the coming of age story of David who is in between two very different cultures but meets them with both grace and humour.