Jenny Zhang’s Sour Heart is a collection of short stories, about the experiences of Asian migrants and their children as they adapt to American life. It’s strikingly original in its style and subject matter – human lives that mainstream art tends to neglect – and the tales are hard and scathing in their graphic imagery.

Asian Americans are under-represented in US culture, and Zhang skilfully depicts the poverty and alienation faced by her young female protagonists, who are all are connected in some way. Distant or overbearing parents are recurring themes, but the family dynamic in each story is starkly different. Many of the stories are also graphic and violent, as they deal with the burgeoning sexualities of the girls, who must face abuse without the vocabulary to describe it. They are thrust into the maelstrom of adult situations – such as travelling alone to foreign countries and dealing with abusive friendships – while they are far too young.

Zhang has created the literary equivalent of the miracle album that’s good all the way through. ‘We Love You Crispina’, for example, explores the neuroses of a girl terrified about her likely move to Shanghai and the prospect of growing up apart from her parents: ‘I only ever wanted them to need me and I only ever thought about them and all the ways in which I could please them or better yet, impress them with how much I wanted to remain their daughter and how much I wanted them to remain my parents.’

Zhang rewards readers who are patient and expend a bit of effort. Her literary quirks include breathlessly long sentences filled with detailed lists that tend to end with a poignant stab to the heart and hard stares into poverty that never ask for pity. The stories in Sour Heart are painful, gripping and vital.

Reviewed by Cameron Colwell