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Author Jenny Zhang's Sour Heart powerfully interweaves immigrant experiences

Zhang's short story collection Sour Heart, focusing on the lives of Chinese-Americans, establishes her as an important literary voice.
Jenny Zhang's short story collection is entitled Sour Heart. (Supplied)

The short stories in Jenny Zhang's new collection Sour Heart  tell the stories of seven interconnected Chinese-American immigrants looking back on their childhood growing up in New York.

The stories centre around themes of self-discovery, anger, and how immigration can be oppressive — experiences Zhang feels are not often examined in literature about Chinese-American immigrants

Jenny Zhang's short story collection Sour Heart is published on August 1.

The book features Zhang's accessible yet incisive writing and provides an unvarnished look into the anxieties and desires of her youthful protagonists. Zhang's characters wrestle with inter-generational angst, poverty and self-image issues.

Zhang's book is the first publication on Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner's Lenny imprint and is gaining widespread acclaim.

— Produced by Cora Nijhawan