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    Wait for Me: A Novel
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    Wait for Me: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Wait for Me: A Novel
    Audiobook4 hours

    Wait for Me: A Novel

    Written by An Na

    Narrated by Kim Mai Guest

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Mina is the perfect daughter. Bound for Harvard, president of the honor society, straight A student, all while she works at her family's dry cleaners and helps care for her hearing-impaired younger sister. On the outside, Mina does everything right. On the inside, Mina knows the truth. Her life is a lie.

    At the height of a heat wave, the summer before her senior year, Mina meets the one person to whom she cannot lie. Ysrale, a young migrant worker who dreams of becoming a musician, comes to work at the dry cleaners and asks Mina the one question that scares her most. What does she want?

    Mina finds herself torn between living her mother's dreams, caring for her younger sister, grasping the love that Ysrael offers, and the most difficult of all, living a life that is true.

    With sensitivity and grace, An Na weaves an intriguing story of a young woman caught in the threads of secrets and lies, struggling for love and finding a voice of her own.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 13, 2006
    ISBN9780739335383
    Unavailable
    Wait for Me: A Novel
    Author

    An Na

    An Na was born in Korea and grew up in San Diego, California. A former middle school English and history teacher, she is the critically acclaimed author of The Fold, Wait for Me, the National Book Award finalist and Printz Award–winning novel A Step from Heaven, and The Place Between Breaths. She lives in Vermont.

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    Reviews for Wait for Me

    3.5/5

    93 ratings13 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Trigger warning for RapeMIna is in her senior year of high school. She's worked too hard to build an image that her mother can be proud of for it to crumble to pieces because of a boy that she refuses to allow to seduce her. All her mother wants is for her to apply to Harvard and get a good job so she won't have to marry a poor man that runs a dry cleaning business, like her father. Unfortunately for Mina, her grades are so pitiful that she probably couldn't go to a University. To get away from under her mother's thumb she had recruited the help of a boy that she knew her mother would approve of and who would do anything she wanted him to do because of how he felt for her. When things went too far, Mina had to resort to other ways and start stealing from her family's business to save up for a time when she could move away. She feels guilty at the thought of leaving her almost deaf little sister Suna but she has dreams that can't be followed under her strict Korean mother's gaze. Suna sees a Mexican boy with a beautiful moon scar that finds employment in her family's dry cleaning business and watches as he and her sister look at each other with an intensity that makes her feel things she had never felt before. The writing was so good I kept reading because I was moved by the great descriptions. The plot itself was kind of a letdown. After reading the author's note at the end I can totally tell it was because she wasn't really sure what kind of story she wanted to write after her debut novel that apparently was a big hit (I'm looking to read that one soon). This book was a little all over the place with a touch of family themes, finding oneself, following your dreams, ableism, racism among POCs, it was a little too much with no real impact for any of them. I felt like none of these things got resolved or that Mina actually learned anything from them because the ending was so vague and open-ended I felt empty after finishing.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book because it was about racism but for the first time, that I've read, it wasn't black and white people. It was interesting to see racism with another culture. Mina is a high school student who is trapped in her lies. Her mother believes she has good grades and that she is headed to Harvard. This is far from true but Mina is too afraid to let down her mother's high standards. Most Asians are seen as very intelligent and always making good grades so this is a contrast. Mina also has a hearing impaired sister named Suna. Every chapter switches between the two sisters and the difference is evident. Mina has longer, more developed chapters while Suna's chapters are a little hard to understand and short. Ysrael is a Mexican who Mina falls in love with which is forbidden because he's not Asian. This book is good for high-schools because it is given from two different views which is quite intriguing.
    • 2/5
      I thought it was okay, the writing style is very good.
    • 3/5
      Thoughtful tale of adolescence and what happens when you start making your own decisions.Mina is a Korean-American high school junior who has successfully tricked her overbearing, strict mom into thinking she's doing well in school. Mina's secret is held by Jonothan, an old family friend whom Mina wants to avoid at all costs.Mina's chapters alternate with her younger sister Suma, who is hearing-impaired and mostly ignored by her parents.Tough love, immigrant experiences, choosing your own path and romance are weaved together by Na, who somehow makes even the most complicated stories seem so simple.Although it's not as poignant and beautiful as "A Step From Heaven," it's a story that will intrigue teens who are forging their own way in life.
    • 3/5
      "Wait for Me" by An Na illustrate family comes before anything else. In the beginning, the protagonist struggle to go school and work at her family dry cleaner store. In the middle, the protagonist meet a young Mexican men that came to fix one of the broken dry cleaner. The protagonist and the young men soon had feeling for each other so they went out. In the end, the young men had to go to San Francisco to follow his dream playing music. The protagonist waas suppose to come along but she turn back and went back home with her family.
    • 3/5
      Mina, a teenaged daughter of Korean immigrant parents, is living a lie to please her mother. She is lying about her grades which are not good enough to get into Harvard and stealing money from the family's dry cleaning business. Umma pressures Mina to be perfect, to wear the right clothes, get the best grades so she can get into the best school, get the best job, meet the best husband, have the best family and of course, the best life. Mina feels smothered since her whole life is school, studying, and working at the dry cleaners. Her one escape is listening to her CDs in the closet. Mina's parents hire a Mexican teenager Ysrale to do the heavy work after her father throws out his back. Her mother doesn't trust him because he's not Korean, but her father likes him. Suna has a crush on him and Mina begins a relationship with him. He urges Mina to think for herself and live for herself. The relationship builds overnight and Mina starts skipping study sessions to be with Ysrale and takes Suna with her.The book is typical teen angst. None of the characters are fully developed and they all seem like props or background noise to Mina's self-absorbed thoughts.
    • 3/5
      If I were a teenager, I'd probably enjoy this book a lot more. I guess I'm too cynical when it comes to love nowadays to enjoy the swooning and the "wait for me" aspect of the book. However, I did feel that the relationship between the sisters, and the mother, was very interesting and enlightening. I probably won't read another one of her books.
    • 2/5
      Felt like I was reading underwater. Lyrical description, especially of Suna's scenes, but sparse dialogue and a lot of backstory is never really explained. An interesting journey, but I would have liked more clarity all the way through.
    • 3/5
      Classic conflict of girl falls in love with boy mom hates. The approach was unique as the story toggles back and forth between Suna and Mina's, two sheltered Korean sisters, take on the events leading up to Mina falling in love with an migrant worker and revealing the truth to her mother--she's not going to Harvard and she hasn't lived up to her mother's dreams. Good read for provoking discussion on parent vs. child expectations, abuse (there was a hint of child neglect on the part of the mother) and race relations.
    • 4/5
      As her senior year in high school approaches, Mina yearns to find her own path in life but working at the family business, taking care of her little sister, and dealing with her mother's impossible expectations are as stifling as the southern California heat, until she falls in love with a man who offers a way out
    • 3/5
      Mina and Suna are Korean American sisters that work at their parents' dry cleaning business in San Diego. Mina's mother thinks she's headed for Harvard, but her grades haven't been good for years and she's stressed out about telling her mother that Harvard is out of the question. Then a sensitive young man comes to work at the dry cleaning business and Mina finally starts to face up to her future.
    • 4/5
      I had mixed feelings about this book. I chose to read this book because I didn’t know the author and the reviews on the back such as “mesmerizing…at times wrenching, at times triumphant and consistently absorbing… Fluid, lyrical language…” caught my attention. When I began to read the book, I was confused on what was going on because there wasn’t a lot of background knowledge explicitly stated. It was also hard to get involved with the book and the characters until the plot started to thicken when Ysrael was introduced into the story. The inner conflict of Mina was the main concept of the storyline, but I personally would have liked to hear from Apa’s perspective as well as more from Suna. However, once the story picked up I really enjoyed it and had a hard time putting the book down! It was a classic teen angst love story but it was interesting to see the cultural aspect integrated into the story as well. I feel that only older students (high school) should read this book because of the inappropriate content such as the sexual innuendos, public displays of affection and explicit language. Also, the ending of this book is not clear whatsoever. It states that “Suna runs forward without a glance, without a thought. To the car rounding the curve of the freeway off-ramp. The road slick with oil and rain. She pumps her arms and wills herself into the light. Suna steps off the curb.” From this statement and the rest of the book (few pages) the author is not explicit in what actually happened to Suna and Mina. I feel that this “conflict” definitely needs to be resolved for the reader’s sake so they aren’t wondering and trying to interpret such a dramatic and horrific event on their own.
    • 5/5
      While I would never say that we have an over abundance of books that deal with racism, I will say that this is only book I know of that deals with racism in which there are no Black or White characters. When a Mexican guitar playing teen comes to work in her family’s business, Mina faces several difficult challenges. Mina lies about her grades so that Uhma (her mother) will really believe that she will attend Harvard. Mina lies about many things. She lies about boys and sex. She is lying so much that she is finding it increasingly difficult to figure out who she is, let alone who she wants to be. One truth, however, in Mina’s life is her hearing impaired sister, Suni. Mina struggles with the often-conflicting pulls of her Korean culture, her family, and her personal identity. Students will enjoy this book because the story works. Teachers will appreciate this book because it is a good example of how form serves function. Mina, who can hear, speaks in long, first person passages. Suni, who is hearing impaired, speaks in very short, third person passages that are not always instantly understood. Readers should also appreciate the fact that this book makes it clear that racism is not a term that applies exclusively to Black and White students. Recommended for all high school libraries and mature middle school students.