This Place is Still Beautiful
-
- £4.99
Publisher Description
Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.
Annalie and Margaret are sisters who agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common.
Annalie is seventeen: sweet, content, and looking forward to a summer of flirting with the most popular boy in school.
Margaret is nineteen: ambitious, a warrior for social justice, and desperate to forget her ex-boyfriend in New York City.
When their family is the victim of a racial attack, Annalie tries to pretend it never happened - but Margaret wants to fight back. Suddenly their relationship - and all the ones around them - are hanging by a thread. And then a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever . . .
A beautiful and powerful story about family, identity and the secrets we keep, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Nicola Yoon, and Adam Silvera.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Tian's tender debut centers the estranged, stormy, evolving sisterhood of Annalie and Margaret Flanagan following a racist incident. The Flanagan siblings are nothing alike: 17-year-old white-passing Annalie is a sweet, insecure people-pleasing high school student; 19-year-old Margaret, who resembles their Chinese immigrant mother, is an assertive aspiring lawyer in N.Y.C. Raised by Mama after their white father abandoned them years ago, the sisters' already tense relationship worsens when their family home is vandalized with a racial slur, prompting Margaret to leave her internship in the city and return to Illinois. The sisters disagree on how to move forward. Annalie wants to respect Mama's wishes and wait for the event to blow over. Margaret, angry at the family's seeming indifference, begins her own investigation, much to the discomfort of their predominantly white hometown. Their summer spirals as the sisters' resentment boils over, and when footage of the crime is found, Annalie is torn between seeking reparations and maintaining their town's relative, if precarious, peace. Tian simultaneously addresses racism's lasting effects on individual lives while eloquently tackling the uncertainty that teens can face in transitional periods. Told in alternating perspectives, this emotionally layered novel, populated by nuanced characters and culminating in complex resolutions, resonates. Ages 13–up.
