Lucy And Linh

"For dedicated readers of young adult fiction, the extraordinary quality of Australian YA has long been an acknowledged fact. With the help of remarkable books like this year’s Lucy and Linh by Alice Pung, I hope to spread this gospel to readers at large. Pung’s novel follows the struggles of Lucy Lam, a scholarship student trying to reckon with her Viet-Chinese heritage at a ritzy Australian private school. It feels like what Zadie Smith might produce if she set out to retell Mean Girls: It’s funny, sharp and addictively paced, but without ever sacrificing nuance, or limiting its capacity to provoke a profound emotional response. This is one I’m going to be pushing on friends for years to come."