Little Paradise is the true story about Gabrielle's parents and how they came together. It is set during the White Australia Policy.
Read the whole interview here. Is it just me or does the shadow image on the cover of the book look like a white couple?
In LITTLE PARADISE, award-winning author Gabrielle Wang takes us on an emotional journey with a young girl, Mirabel, living in 1940s Melbourne. A first-generation Chinese Australian, Mirabel is caught between two worlds. Though entrenched in the local culture, her parents are traditionalists and expect her to be a good, obedient daughter. But Mirabel, a talented artist, has a stubborn, independent streak. She denounces her birth name, and this enough to drive her insulted mother to warn: “Changing your name will change your whole destiny.” And you can bet she means not in a good way!
Fate and chance are recurring themes in LITTLE PARADISE. At a cousin’s birthday party, she locks eyes on JJ, a Chinese soldier stationed in Melbourne. Instantly, she knows he’s The One. But it’s not until her father’s friend brings him home for dinner that she speaks to him for the first time. After a rocky start, they begin an illicit affair. When Mirabel falls pregnant, there’s no going back to being a good, obedient daughter. When JJ is ordered back to China, Mirabel is heartbroken. All contact between them is severed. Then she makes a decision that again changes her destiny: she sets off for Shanghai in the midst of a civil war, infant in tow. Everyone else is trying to flee the city. Not Mirabel. She’s on a mission to find a little paradise with JJ.
LITTLE PARADISE will transport you to a time where you had to be resourceful in order to survive daily life. It’s an emotive, powerful story that comes from the heart. First-gen Australians like myself will relate to trying to reach into the family’s adopted country while maintaining old traditions, all the while wondering where you truly belong.
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