The Translator's Daughter
Grace Loh Prasad’s memoir The Translator’s Daughter is about her life as an assimilated immigrant.
Prasad left Taiwan when she was still a toddler. Even after her parents returned to Taiwan years later, she elected to remain in the US, locking herself into a lifelong tug-of-war between two worlds: the one she was born into but would never be a full part of, and the one where she tried to build a life far away from the people who made that life possible.
Separated from the nation of her birth by the largest ocean and unable to speak the language, Prasad enjoyed her visits to Taiwan despite feeling like a perpetual foreigner. She recounts the tumultuous feelings associated with the loss of her original language and name and with living far from her family members as they aged, got ill, and died without her. Every new health challenge required a scramble of last-minute planning and multihour flights, with no guarantee that she would get there in time to help. With her parents’ physical and mental deterioration, the language barrier grew ever higher: they could no longer translate for or even communicate their needs to their admiring yet guilt-ridden daughter.
After her immediate family passed away, Prasad felt more isolated than ever. Digital connections narrowed but never closed the gap that separated her from her surviving relatives. It took decades for her to find peace within the in-between space she occupied. The book’s touching final chapter passes her hard-won knowledge on to her son, who, like her, has to learn how to navigate the multiple, wonderful worlds he was born into.
The Translator’s Daughter is a poignant memoir about the joy, sadness, struggle, and complexities of being an immigrant.
Reviewed by
Eileen Gonzalez
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
