Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Waiting on Wednesday - The Frangipani Hotel, Violet Kupersmith


"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating. (I don't read a lot of short story collections, but this one sounds really good. I always enjoy hotels as settings for some reason.

This week's pick is --

Frangipani Hotel; Violet Kupersmith
Spiegel & Grau (April 1, 2014) Random House

An extraordinarily compelling debut—ghost stories that grapple with the legacy of the Vietnam War
 
A beautiful young woman appears fully dressed in an overflowing bathtub at the Frangipani Hotel in Hanoi. A jaded teenage girl in Houston befriends an older Vietnamese gentleman she discovers naked behind a dumpster. A trucker in Saigon is asked to drive a dying young man home to his village. A plump Vietnamese-American teenager is sent to her elderly grandmother in Ho Chi Minh City to lose weight, only to be lured out of the house by the wafting aroma of freshly baked bread. In these evocative and always surprising stories, the supernatural coexists with the mundane lives of characters who struggle against the burdens of the past.

Based on traditional Vietnamese folk tales told to Kupersmith by her grandmother, these fantastical, chilling, and thoroughly contemporary stories are a boldly original exploration of Vietnamese culture, addressing both the immigrant experience and the lives of those who remained behind. Lurking in the background of them all is a larger ghost—that of the Vietnam War, whose legacy continues to haunt us.

Violet Kupersmith’s voice is an exciting addition to the landscape of American fiction. With tremendous depth and range, her stories transcend their genre to make a wholly original statement about the postwar experience.
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11 comments:

  1. rhapsodyinbooksFebruary 19, 2014 at 7:32 AM

    This sounds pretty interesting. Plus just visualizing Frangipanis is very soothing right now, after all this cold white endless winter!

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  2. Kim@Time2ReadFebruary 19, 2014 at 7:45 AM

    This one sounds interesting. Hope you enjoy it!
    Here's my WoW!
    http://mytime2read.blogspot.com/2014/02/waiting-on-wednesday-feb-19.html

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  3. JillFebruary 19, 2014 at 8:41 AM

    I'm not usually drawn to short story collections, either...but this one sounds good!

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  4. Catherine @ Book Club LibrarianFebruary 19, 2014 at 8:58 AM

    There's a lot of buzz around this book. Hope it's worth the wait.

    My WoW: http://www.bookclublibrarian.com/2014/02/waiting-on-wednesday-new-maeve-binchy.html

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  5. Melissa (Avid Reader)February 19, 2014 at 9:06 AM

    I've never heard of this one, but it sound fascinating!

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  6. bermudaonionFebruary 19, 2014 at 9:51 AM

    This sounds fantastic!

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  7. DarleneFebruary 19, 2014 at 10:19 AM

    Ooooh, this sounds like one I'd like and the cover grabs my attention right away.

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  8. Laurel-Rain SnowFebruary 19, 2014 at 10:26 AM

    Love the look and sound of this one! Thanks for sharing...and enjoy! Here's MY WOW POST

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  9. Brian's Home BlogFebruary 19, 2014 at 2:59 PM

    Oh, that sounds really good.

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  10. Leslie (Under My Apple Tree)February 20, 2014 at 2:35 AM

    I like short stories too. The ghostly elements tied in with the Vietnam War caught my interest. I'll be reading this one in the next week or so.

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  11. KailanaFebruary 21, 2014 at 11:45 AM

    I have a review copy of this for a blog tour and I am really excited to start reading it!

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