“An exquisite memoir… A dramatic, step-by-step examination of what it means to sustain a life.” —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times
Winner of the Books for a Better Life Award
A Washington Post Book Club Selection
A Public Books Favorite Book
Featured on: PBS NewsHour, Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, NPR All Things Considered, WNYC Leonard Lopate Show, WHYY Voices in the Family, Australia’s ABC Radio National
Profiles, interviews, and excerpts: The Washington Post, TIME, Fortune, Good Housekeeping, Reddit, the Guardian, Business Insider, Real Simple, Salon, Yahoo!
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WHEN her daughter was born nearly four months premature, Deanna Fei confronted a shattering question: Had she delivered a child or lost one? Over months in the hospital, as she held the hand of a tiny baby fighting for her life inside a glass box, she came to grips with parenthood at its most elemental. Then, a year after she brought her daughter home, the CEO of her husband’s company publicly blamed the medical bills of the beautiful, now-thriving little girl for a cut in employee benefits and attached a price tag to her life, setting off a national firestorm.
Girl in Glass is the riveting story of one child’s harrowing journey and a mother’s impassioned defense of human worth against corporate disregard. With luminous prose and an unflinching eye, Fei explores what it means to save a life: from the front lines of a neonatal intensive care unit to the perils of the American health-care system; from decades of medical innovation to the question of how we care for our most vulnerable; and finally, to the potent force of a child’s will to live. Above all, Girl in Glass is a testament to how love takes hold when a new life defies all expectations.
“Extraordinarily beautiful.” —NPR, All Things Considered
“An impassioned, important book.” —The Washington Post
“Everyone must read this book.” —Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC
“Courageous and passionate … a deeply moving work of moral philosophy.” —Andrew Solomon, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of FAR FROM THE TREE
“Raw, unflinching, and beautifully written.” —Good Housekeeping
“Fei writes with precision, grace, and a devastating honesty… Exquisite [and] necessary.” —The Boston Globe
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How does a strong woman learn to let go?
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A CALA 2010 Best Book
Winner of Late Night Library’s Debut-litzer Prize
Featured in Marie Claire, Ms., and More
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“This is one of those rare novels that delivers on the promise of its opening pages… No smart woman should leave on vacation without it.” —Chicago Tribune
"Timeless and of the moment.” —New York Times Book Review
Looking to reconnect with their ancestral home and with one another, three generations of women tour mainland China on a journey that will change their family forever
A stunning debut, A Thread of Sky is the story of a family of six fiercely independent women and the powerful thread that binds their lives.
When her husband of thirty years is killed, Irene Shen and her three daughters are set adrift. In a desperate attempt to heal her fractured family, Irene plans a tour of mainland China, reuniting three generations of women—her three daughters, her distant poet sister, and her formidable eighty-year-old mother. But each woman arrives bearing secrets big and small, and just as they begin to reconnect, the most carefully guarded secret of all threatens to tear their family apart forever.
A Thread of Sky is a beautifully written and deeply haunting story about love and sacrifice, history and memory, sisterhood and motherhood, and the connections that endure.
“A lyrical journey through the heart of contemporary China … Deanna Fei is one to watch.” —Ann Patchett, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of STATE OF WONDER and BEL CANTO
“Lovely and subtle… Exhilarating.” —Lauren Groff, NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of FATES AND FURIES and ARCADIA
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