Salt fish girl : a novel
(Book)

"... a sci-fi, fantasy, critical social commentary, poetry, and product of the postmodern. calling this an 'Asian book' or a 'woman's book' limits its scope and depth, a book that delves into memory, both personal and historical. it is also a creative challenge to conventional discussions on immigration and geographic/cultural displacement by exposing the power dynamics in the process. at the same time, however, the circular setup of the novel, the watery motifs, and gendered violence situates the book within women's experiences. salt fish girl is also laden with loss, denial, forgetting and abandonment that is a common thread in an asian diasporic experience. larissa lai's poetic and lucid writing style fits so well with the fantastical yet tactile tone of the book. it is dream-like and yet feels intensely real. a delightful find. ... story about two Asian women -one a shapeshifter and the other obsessed with scent and her dead mother- who lived in very different times, but are somehow related ... And as a former Vancouverite, I also appreciated the book's run-down Pacific edge of the future setting."--Amazon.com reviews