However, Sylvie’s lack of belonging in her childhood–her parental abandonment and treatment as a second-class citizen from her guardians–resulted in a drive to succeed and prove her self-worth.

Sylvie is thought to be the perfect daughter–both pretty and smart. It’s the first time Sylvie had gone back since leaving when she was nine years old… more than 20 years ago.Ī significant portion of Sylvie’s characterization, and her relationship with her mother, is built on those first nine years Sylvie spent in the Netherlands. Searching for Sylvie Lee is premised by the disappearance of Sylvie after she goes back to her childhood home in the Netherlands to say goodbye to her dying grandmother. It is a profound exploration of the many ways culture and language can divide us and the impossibility of ever truly knowing someone-especially those we love.

secrets that will reveal more about Amy’s complicated family-and herself-than she ever could have imagined.Ī deeply moving story of family, secrets, identity, and longing, Searching for Sylvie Lee is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive portrait of an immigrant family. Sylvie, the golden girl, kept painful secrets. But instead of simple answers, she discovers something much more valuable: the truth. Terrified yet determined, Amy retraces her sister’s movements, flying to the last place Sylvie was seen. Timid and shy, Amy has always looked up to her sister, the fierce and fearless protector who showered her with unconditional love.īut what happened to Sylvie? Amy and her parents are distraught and desperate for answers.

Seven years older, Sylvie was raised by a distant relative in a faraway, foreign place, and didn’t rejoin her family in America until age nine. Sylvie, the beautiful, brilliant, successful older daughter of the Lee family, flies to the Netherlands for one final visit with her dying grandmother-and then vanishes.Īmy, the sheltered baby of the Lee family, is too young to remember a time when her parents were newly immigrated and too poor to keep Sylvie. A poignant and suspenseful drama that untangles the complicated ties binding three women-two sisters and their mother-in one Chinese immigrant family and explores what happens when the eldest daughter disappears, and a series of family secrets emerge, from the New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation

Sylvie lee book