How long does it take to read Girl in Translation?
Jean Kwok
Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok takes about 6 hours 3 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 6 hours 3 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2010. 330 pages, about 90,750 words. Written for young adults.
13 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 10 hours 5 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 6 hours 3 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 47 minutes |
The page count is the median across 5 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn, Kimberly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker at night. Disguising the difficult truths of her life -- like the extent of her poverty, the degree to which her family's future rests on her, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition -- Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself between the worlds she straddles. Through Kimberly's story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to family, and their personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. In an indelible voice, Jean Kwok has written a classic novel of the immigrant experience -- a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation. (Bestseller) Ah-Kim Chang and her mother immigrate to Brooklyn, where they work for Aunt Paula in a Chinatown clothing factory. Kim's hard work earns her a place at an elite private school, where she is befriended by Annette, who helps her adjust to America.
Subjects: Fiction, Mothers and daughters, Chinese American teenagers, Chinese, Women immigrants, Chinese fiction
