Cold Thief Place

Lin debuts with an impressive collection that tells the story of an undocumented daughter of parents who flee Communist China and become fundamentalist Christians in America. Drawing on her own experience of living as an undocumented American for 21 years, Lin poetically imagines her parents’ precarious journeys from China to Brazil to the U.S., exploring the profound impact of being undocumented while growing up in a fundamentalist household. In “I See Her Best,” the speaker extrapolates from an old photograph the compromises her mother made to survive: “1974. A young woman clasping the arm/ of a married man, her wrapped hair/ and secret smile, her face, or a version of the face/ I touch in my sleep.” Another poem explores how the speaker is forced to appease an authoritarian family: “My petitioner is interested in sex./... The agent at Homeland Security asks why/ I wanted my petitioner to be my petitioner./ The truth is my father saved three thousand dollars,/ the market rate for men/ who petition for illegal women.” These stunning poems breathe new life into the confessional form. (Mar.)