{"product_id":"cold-thief-place-9781949944709","title":"Cold Thief Place","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCold Thief Place\u003c\/i\u003e speaks of the experiences of an undocumented American, her parents who fled Communist China and found safety in fundamentalist Christianity, and how she tried to understand them and herself by way of confessional poems. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis is a family story. It tells of a mother who fled an authoritarian government and turned that authoritarianism on to her children. Of a father who made a new life--three times on three different continents--and his sea voyage in between. Or what a daughter imagines of these events, as much as it's possible to truly know one's parents. The narrator, who is their daughter, grew up in difficult but very different circumstances, too: undocumented in the United States and was pressured into a greencard marriage in order to live a \"normal life.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOne of the myths of America is that Americans are newly formed, defiant of authority, and free from old-world traditions. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThis book speaks to dark side of this myth: of the legacies that my parents wished to escape but instead carried with them: their distrust of government and their desire for an authoritarianism similar to the kind they had fled. Individually, the poems attempt to understand the emotions surrounding these impulses, from the point-of-view of their daughter, who is herself displaced as an undocumented American--that is, a person who is not permitted to be American, and without a home country to return to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Alice James Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/11\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781949944709\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 100","brand":"Esther Lin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45017840910517,"sku":"9781949944709","price":21.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_d4b30939-bc29-4841-96f7-cea2d615ff54.jpg?v=1736833106","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/cold-thief-place-9781949944709","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}