Dandelion

Dandelion

Published:
2026-02-03
Categories:
ISBN:
9781551528823
Meeting:
2026-02-03 (meeting #109)
Chosen by:
Sue
Pages:
262
File size (e-book):
2.3 MB
Download URL:
Book Availability:
available
Pre Order Availability:
no
Accessibility Features:
enabled

Description:

When Lily was eleven years old, her mother, Swee Hua, walked away from the family, never to be seen or heard from again.  Now, as a new mother herself, Lily becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Swee Hua.  She recalls the spring of 1987, growing up in a small British Columbia mining town where there were only a handful of Asian families; Lily's previously stateless father wanted them to blend seamlessly into Canadian life, while her mother, alienated and isolated, longed to return to Brunei.  Years later, still affected by Swee Hua's disappearance, Lily's family is nonetheless stubbornly silent to her questioning.  But eventually, an old family friend provides a clue that sends Lily to Southeast Asia to find out the truth.

Winner of the Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writers Award from the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, Dandelion is a beautifully written and affecting novel about motherhood, family secrets, migration, isolation, and mental illness.  With clarity and care, it delves into the many ways we define home, identity, and above all, belonging.

Author Details:

Jamie Chai Yun Liew is a professor, lawyer, novelist and podcaster. She penned the acclaimed novel Dandelion, which was longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2023, and was the winner of the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writer Award 2018. She is the co-author (with Donald Galloway) of "Immigration Law and Immigration and Refugee Law: Cases, Material, and Commentary".  She has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada, Federal Court of Appeal, Federal Court, and the Immigration and Refugee Board. She teaches, researches and writes on immigration, refugee and citizenship law, and how law not only marginalizes people but constructs them as racialized and foreign.