'Others Were Emeralds' is a coming-of-age story confronting racism in Australia

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's episode, Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes and author Lang Leav bond over growing up in Australia, and navigating racism and anti-immigrant sentiments while also trying to find community as a young person. Leav's new novel, Others Were Emeralds, follows a Cambodian teen growing up in a small town of Asian immigrants near Sydney. While she's trying to make sense of the hostility that she faces from outsiders, she's also dealing with the everyday struggle of being a young woman.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Sometimes when it comes to stories about
0:07.6	teenage immigrants in the Western world, you hear the same beats again and again. Society is racist.
0:13.8	My parents don't understand. I feel weird and unsure about my place in society. What I like about
0:19.6	today's interview with Long Liyev is that, yeah, she touches on those
0:23.1	things, but she makes sure to remind people that immigrant teens also then have to deal
0:28.8	with the teen part of that equation, you know, crushes, school, friends, enemies, frenemies,
0:33.8	all that.
0:34.7	She talked with here Nazdipa Fernandez about her book. Others were emeralds and coming of age in Australia.
0:41.1	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:45.9	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:50.3	On our new show, Sources and Methods, NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:59.7	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:05.3	A new novel brought back memories for me of my childhood in Australia.
1:10.0	Sydney has a reputation for being a cosmopolitan city,
1:13.2	welcoming visitors from around the world. But in the late 1980s and early 90s, it was much more
1:19.4	hostile to non-whites, as Langliav's book, Others Were Emeralds, reminds us. The book is centered
1:25.9	around I, the child of refugees who escape the Khmer Rouge.
1:30.3	Her family has settled in the fictional immigrant town of Whitlam, where I has a close
1:34.6	group of friends. But their closeness is threatened by the constant hostility they face from
1:39.9	white Australians. Langliave is also the child of refugees. She grew up in the mostly
1:45.5	migrant town of Cabramatta, one of Sydney's outer suburbs. Once again, her book is Others
1:51.7	Were Emeralds. Lang, welcome to here and now. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
	...

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