Books by Nicole Chung

“Chung writes about how isolated she felt growing up as a Korean girl in a white family, in a very white neighbourhood…it’s about finding her place in the world, and examining this idea of multicultural or interracial adoption but then it’s also about what figuring out what family is.” Read more...

The Best Memoirs: The 2019 National Book Critics Circle Awards Shortlist

Laurie Hertzel, Journalist

Little Fires Everywhere features a subplot about the custody battle over an adopted child: the baby’s biological mother, a Chinese immigrant working in a takeaway restaurant, regrets surrendering her – while the adoptive parents, both white and wealthy, believe they offer a better future. Both love the child unconditionally; the judge must weigh the prosperity of the American couple against the child’s loss of her familial and cultural heritage. Nicole Chung’s adoption memoir, All You Can Ever Know, explores the issue of cross-cultural adoption in depth. She writes beautifully of growing up Korean in an all-white, American family, and her attempt to trace her birth family after falling pregnant herself.

From our article Books like Little Fires Everywhere