International Book Award Finalist, Fiction: Multicultural category.
Mimi (the protagonist of Mimi and Her Mirror) is a successful young
Vietnamese immigrant practicing law in Washington, D.C. when the
postcards begin to arrive. Postmarked from Thailand, each hand-drawn
card is beautifully rendered and signed simply "Nam." Mimi doesn't
recognize the name, but Nam obviously knows her well, spurring her to
launch what will become a decade-long quest to find him. As her search
progresses, long-repressed memories begin to bubble to the surface: her
childhood in 1970s Vietnam in a small alley in pre-Communist Saigon.
Back then, who was her best friend as well as her brother's playmate,
and what did art have anything to do with the alleys of her childhood?
What was the dream of these children then? What happened when these
children were separated by the end of the Vietnam war, their lives
diverged onto different paths: one to freedom and opportunity, the other
to tragedy and pain? Now Mimi must uncover the mystery of the postcards,
including what might have happened to the people who where less
fortunate: those who escaped the ravaged homeland by boat after the fall
of Saigon. When the mystery is solved, Mimi has to make a resolution:
what can possibly reunite the children from the alley of her childhood
even when the alley exists no more?
