Paper sons: A Memoir

On sale now: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound                                                                     

Set in a public housing project in San Francisco, Paper Sons explores Lam’s transformation from a teenage graffiti writer to a high school teacher working with troubled youth while navigating the secret violence in his immigrant family’s past.

---

“Lam’s memoir eloquently paints a portrait of immigrant experiences in a city that is superficially welcoming, but deeply hostile.” 
—The Coil

 

“Beautifully complicated.” 
—Houston Chronicle

 

“Lam’s dazzling debut memoir….pulses with life as he explores…whether there can be such a thing as redemption.” 
—The Rumpus

 

“Unflinchingly honest….and sure to spark discussion.” 
—School Library Journal

 

“Deftly combines narrative prose in the confessional mode, various poetic forms, linguistic translation theory, Chinese and Chinese American cultural history, Asian American studies, a graffiti crew’s raison d’être, and even a bit of speculative fiction.” 
—Asian American Writers’ Workshop

 

“A book for the times in which the nation grapples with questions of race and identity.” 
—Oakland Magazine

 

“From China to Hong Kong to San Francisco’s North Beach projects, Dickson Lam’s Paper Sons (and daughters) navigate the mysteries and betrayals of deleted and recovered memory, of tagging crews and migrant parents, of generational secrets. Dickson Lam’s unforgettable characters blaze like falling stars and illumine a world.”
—Jayne Anne Phillips, National Book Award finalist

 

“An important book, beautifully crafted, rich in poetic images and juxtapositions, that offers insight and compassion for a nation struggling to make sense of its immigrant nature.”

—Alison Hawthorne Deming, contest judge for Autumn House’s 2017 Nonfiction Prize

 

“Paper Sons isn’t just a memoir, it’s a triumph.”
—Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day

 

“Highly recommended!”
—Andrew X. Pham, author of Catfish and Mandala

 

“Sheds fresh light on the Asian American immigrant experience….Paper Sons is an exhilarating debut.”  

—Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

 

“A groundbreaking memoir….Lam creates three-dimensional portraits of people who have too often been silenced in our culture.”

—David Mura, author of Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei