The Immigrant Princess
When three generations of women from the Cambodian royal family live as immigrants in the U.S., they struggle to find meaning and relevance in a new country that challenges their traditions and forces them to build a new life. Career-driven Sophea Lim, the oldest granddaughter, is saddled with the cultural responsibility of taking care of her mother and grandmother. However, when she loses both a promotion and her American boyfriend, she blames it on her traditional Cambodian upbringing and starts a war in her close-knit family. Although Sophea has an ally in her younger sister Ravy, her mother and grandmother find her first-world complaints trivial compared to the real-world suffering of two-million Cambodians who perished at the hands of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge including her father. Turmoil erupts when Ravy encourages Sophea to move out of the house she shares with her mother and grandmother. Will Sophea shirk her responsibility to take care of her elders? Is her quest for independence worth hurting the two people she loves most?
Book Club/Discussion Guide
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Praise for The Immigrant Princess
“The rich gifts and tragic history of Cambodia impose a complicated burden on Sophea Lim, whose quest for love, career, and independence run counter to the duties and proprieties her mother and grandmother have taught her. Thoughtful and humorous, The Immigrant Princess takes us on a fascinating ride into Cambodian history and immigrant struggles. An engrossing, compassionate portrait of one family’s attempt to make peace with a painful past.”
–Jessica Levine, author of The Geometry of Love, a Booklist Top Ten Women’s Fiction Title for 2015
“Variny Yim’s enchanting debut novel about three generations of strong Cambodian women living in the United States is a compelling story of what happens to the children of refugees in a land of opportunity. Yim’s vibrant characters tackle complex issues such as survival guilt, familial obligations, and the tug of war between traditional values and modern Western life; their experiences demystify the travails and triumphs of so many people who have had to reinvent themselves outside their countries of origin.”
— Nassim Assefi, MD, doctor, writer, curator, activist, and author of Aria
“East meets West and traditional values are turned upside down as three generations of Cambodian women adapt to life in 21st century America. In The Immigrant Princess, author Variny Yim deftly manages to evoke both worlds with a lighthearted touch as her characters realize the importance of remembering the truth of their history and heritage, while embracing life on these shores. A fun and spirited read.”
–Barbara Graham, New York Times bestselling author of Eye of My Heart
“In this poignant first novel, Variny Yim creates a complex world of memory, loss, and triumph in a three-generational Cambodian family of four remarkable women. The story unfolds as this refugee family, having fled political instability in 1974 as the Khmer Rouge seized power in Phnom Penh, relocates to Washington D.C. and learns to negotiate American culture. The two sisters, now college educated with demanding careers, navigate between traditional responsibilities to their Cambodian mother and grandmother and their own expectations as successful Cambodian-Americans. Caught in a cross-cultural maelstrom of traditional values that establish the perfect daughter as ‘obedient, quiet and humble,’ these two sisters manage to transform the tragedy that haunts so many Cambodian families into mutual understanding among three generations.”
–Teri Shaffer Yamada, Ph.D.; Chair of the Dept. of Asian and Asian American Studies, CSU Long Beach; Cofounder of the Nou Hach Literary Association