The Girl Before Her

"In French, the words for water (les eaux) and bones (les os) sound identical. It’s a phonetic pun that plays on this novel’s central images: If water represents a person’s destiny or origin, then bones represent the core – creative ways in which this mixed-race writer defines herself. Line Papin dazzlingly contrasts the history and romance of Hanoi – her birth city – with the stark displacement she experienced at 10 when her family relocated to France, her father’s homeland. It was as if Papin’s Vietnamese grandmother and mother, who had survived wars, now transmitted their suppressed grief to her young body, where it manifested physically as anorexia and metaphorically as a rage against loss."