A 2017 National Book Award Longlist Title
A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness 2017 Best Book of the Year
South Asia Book Award Winner
2018 White Ravens Award Winner
A Louisiana Readers' Choice Award Nominee
"Full of sisterhood, diversity, and complex, strong women, this book will speak to readers as they will undoubtedly find a kindred spirit in at least one of the Das women." —Booklist starred review
"... an unforgettable novel... Perkins’s vibrantly written exploration of a family in transition is saturated with romance, humor, and meaningful reflections on patriotism, blended cultures, and carving one’s own path." —Publishers Weekly starred review
"This stunning book about immigration and cultural assimilation is a must-purchase for teen and new adult collections." —School Library Journal starred review
"...an ambitious narrative that illuminates past and present, departure and reunion, women and family." —The Horn Book starred review
"...features inspiring South Asian girl and women protagonists grappling with love, faith, and culture, as well as the intersections among their personal, communal, and national histories...lushly drawn and emotionally resonant." —Kirkus
"The fully fleshed characters and complex family dynamics provide a vibrant background for exploration of multigenerational adaptation to a diverse America and of the familial and romantic love that nourishes their new roots." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
"With wisdom and wit, You Bring the Distant Near illustrates the beauty in diversity. Perkins's striking imagery and deep, heartfelt insights illuminate the darkest corners of ignorance, providing a bright path to understanding and embracing differences in all their many splendors." —Shelf Awareness starred review
2017-08-02
Perkins' latest, inspired by the author's own experience as the youngest of three sisters who arrived in the United States in the 1970s, is told in alternating voices across three generations. This saga tells the intertwined stories of Ranee Das, the matriarch, who uproots her family from Ghana (and then the United Kingdom) to find fortune in the United States; Sonia and Tara, her daughters, who struggle with identity and acceptance; and Anna and Chantal, Ranee's granddaughters, who fight injustices at home and in their communities. As in the author's other books, this novel features inspiring South Asian girl and women protagonists grappling with love, faith, and culture, as well as the intersections among their personal, communal, and national histories. The chapters from Ranee's point of view, highlighting her redemptive transformation from racist mother-in-law to doting grandmother to a half-black grandchild, and those told in Sonia's and Tara's voices, including their turns from awkward and aspiring immigrant teenagers to New York Times reporter and Bollywood star respectively, are lushly drawn and emotionally resonant. The final third of the book, however, from the points of view of Anna and Chantal, is less so; its plotlines—Anna's quest to redecorate her elite private school's locker rooms and Chantal's wrecking of her rich, white boyfriend's Porsche—seem contrived and hastily written. While "issues" permeate the book (war, migration, racism, colorism, body positivity, environmentalism), they are more deftly woven into the narrative in the earlier, historical chapters than the later, contemporary ones. Although the book loses steam and heart toward the end, the earlier chapters, moving and rich in character and setting, make up for it. (Historical fiction/fiction. 12-18)
