The Manicurist's Daughter: A Memoir by Susan Lieu

I love memoirs about complicated families, and I especially love books set in San Francisco. This book "The Manicurist's Daughter" by Susan Lieu checked both of those boxes in a big way. When she was just 11 years old, Susan's mother went to a secret medical appointment on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, and a few days later her mother died. And the family never spoke about the death again. This is enough to make any child curious as to what happened, and Susan would spend the rest of her life trying to find out more details. The fact is that Susan's mother went to get a tummy tuck, and the surgery went terribly wrong. The surgeon eventually paid the family a small sum of money for his negligence. But those are the broad strokes of the story. The details are even more interesting: Susan's mother was a Vietnamese immigrant, along with her father, and her parents owned a chain of nail salons, in Emeryville and Santa Rosa. The plastic surgeon prayed on Vietnamese women in the Bay Area, promising to enhance their beauty. Longing for the mother she hardly knew, Susan commits to finding out ever last detail of her mother's final days, and hoping it will help her family heal. In this honest and very raw memoir, Susan ends up strengthening the relationships with her siblings and father, and teaching them all how to grieve. Haunting and beautifully written, Lieu's memoir is one to be treasured. To buy this book on Amazon click here