This Place Is Still Beautiful, XiXi Tian
This Place Is Still Beautiful, XiXi Tian
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This Place Is Still Beautiful

Author: XiXi Tian

Narrator: Katharine Chin, Cindy Kay

Unabridged: 10 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/07/2022


Synopsis

With five starred reviews, this is an acclaimed novel about sisterhood, family, and the pernicious legacy of racism. Perfect for fans of Tahereh Mafi, Jandy Nelson, and Emily X.R. Pan, with crossover appeal for readers of Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half.The Flanagan sisters are as different as they come. Seventeen-year-old Annalie is bubbly, sweet, and self-conscious, whereas nineteen-year-old Margaret is sharp and assertive. Margaret looks just like their mother, while Annalie passes for white and looks like the father who abandoned them years ago, leaving their Chinese immigrant mama to raise the girls alone in their small, predominantly white Midwestern town.When their house is vandalized with a shocking racial slur, Margaret rushes home from her summer internship in New York City. She expects outrage. Instead, her sister and mother would rather move on. Especially once Margaret’s own investigation begins to make members of their community uncomfortable.For Annalie, this was meant to be a summer of new possibilities, and she resents her sister’s sudden presence and insistence on drawing negative attention to their family. Meanwhile Margaret is infuriated with Annalie’s passive acceptance of what happened. For Margaret, the summer couldn’t possibly get worse, until she crosses paths with someone she swore she’d never see again: her first love, Rajiv Agarwal.As the sisters navigate this unexpected summer, an explosive secret threatens to break apart their relationship, once and for all.This Place Is Still Beautiful is a luminous, captivating story about identity, sisterhood, and how our hometowns are inextricably a part of who we are, even when we outgrow them.

About XiXi Tian

XiXi Tian was born in China and immigrated to the United States when she was a year old. She grew up in central Illinois, graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in history, and then attended Harvard Law School. She is a writer, lawyer, avid reader, and lifelong Midwesterner no matter where she lives. Her debut novel, This Place Is Still Beautiful, was an Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick and received five starred reviews. You can visit her online at xixiwrites.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by jessica on October 30, 2022

for such a heavy and serious topic, this is one of the prettiest debuts ive read in a while. XTs writing is so, so lovely. while the focus of the story is how a family handles a horrible act of hatred, i found the complicated relationship between the two sisters the most compelling aspect of the boo......more

Goodreads review by AK on July 11, 2022

10/5 stars?? Is that an option, because this is probably the best book I've ever read because everything felt like life turned into words, like a world that was built and characters who were real all coming together to break my heart. And I don't know what to do with that right now so I'm going to r......more

Goodreads review by rina on June 06, 2022

A story of two estranged sisters who are brought together after a hate crime is committed in their home. Upon reading the premise, I expected something powerful and moving. In my case, it wasn’t much of those. Told in alternating POVs of the two sisters, Margaret and Annalie, through them we see two......more

Goodreads review by bangchan&books on July 05, 2024

3 / 5 🌟 “i found out being lonely is different than being alone. loneliness, it turns out, isn't quite as easy to escape." tws: gaslighting, racism, hate crimes, misogyny, invalidation of mixed people......more

Goodreads review by kate on May 25, 2022

Deeply moving and powerful, this is a gorgeously written story told through the perspectives of two sisters, each with their own unique and strong voice, and the different ways in which they deal/cope with the aftermath of their family being the target of a racially motivated hate crime. I adored bo......more