Ingold, Jeanette Paper Daughter

Ingold, Jeanette Paper Daughter
Harcourt Brace/Houghton Mifflin 2010 210p 17.00
978-0-15-205507-3 ms/jr Multicultural VG-BN
Just before Maggie started her internship at the newspaper, her father’s tragic death has placed a burden on her heart. Then as she begins to go through his papers she discovers that the family she thought she had is not real. Her father lied to her. Now angry and upset at the turn of events Maggie must make sense of her life as it relates to her father. Maggie’s internship at the newspaper is exciting but she feels like there is a dark cloud over her as she ponders her father’s lies about his family. Then by coincidence on one of the assignments with one of the newspapers reporters, Maggie is able to link her father’s death with the incident they are investigating. This turn of events forces Maggie to face the problem of her father’s missing family and sends her on a search for the truth. What she discovers is a tale worth telling.
The beginning chapters are very slow to catch your attention but the side story of the Chinese immigrant paper son in the early part of the century is interesting even if it seems that it is unrelated. It isn’t until much later that
Maggie begins to connect the dots the stories start to interrelate. Then the pieces start to fall in place and the reader is told how the how both stories are connected. Maggie’s family history begins to unfold and we see how the past is connected to the present. The real interesting story is in the past and due to greed, envy, murder and fear we see how two generations was lost without a connection to their family until Maggie discovers the truth and brings them home. The past has the star-crossed lovers and it is only in the recognition of the past that brings healing to all in the present.
Slow to start but picks up speed as you go along. The immigrant part of the story was much more interesting that the present. Diaz, Magna