Digging to America

From the Pulitzer prize-winning Sunday Times bestseller Anne Tyler. Digging to America is now re-jacketed along with the rest of Tyler's books in striking new backlist styleFriday August 15th, 1997. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to two very different Baltimore families.Every year, on the anniversary of 'Arrival Day' the two families celebrate together, with more and more elaborately competitive parties, as little Susan and Jin-ho take roots and become American.SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE**ANNE TYLER HAS SOLD OVER 1 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE**'One of my favourite authors' Liane Moriarty'She spins gold' Elizabeth Buchan'Anne Tyler has no peer' Anita Shreve'A masterly author' Sebastian Faulks

Short-listed for Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007

“Magnificent”

Observer
Deliciously funny and sharply observed Guardian
Wise and funny...a multidimensional exploration of what it means to belong, not only to a family but also to a nation Sunday Times
Out of this everyday material she spins gold: stories so achingly truthful, so achingly funny, so sad and so real that you can only marvel Daily Mail
Anne Tyler draws a comedy that is not so much brilliant as luminous – its observant sharpness sweetened by a generous understanding of human fallibility Sunday Telegraph

CHRISTOPHER DAWES began his writing career as a music journalist in the mid 1980s. After initiating and editing Melody Maker's first dance section, he was the editor of the clubbing magazine Muzik for 3 years and tehm editor of the male lifestyle title Mondo. He is the co-author of The Book Of E (Omnibus 2000) and is currently writing Rat Scabies & The Holy Grail (Sceptre 2005).MARK ROLAND After a decade playing in bands, Mark Roland joined Melody Maker in the early 1990s, leaving in 1999 to launch Mondo with Push. He has also written for numerous other publications including The Face, FHM, Muzik, Ministry and The Guardian. He is currently working on his first novel.

Friday August 15th, 1997. The night the girls arrived. Two tiny Korean babies are delivered to Baltimore to two families who have no more in common than this. First there are the Donaldsons, decent Brad and homespun, tenacious Bitsy (with her 'more organic than thou' airs, who believes fervently that life can always be improved), two full sets of grandparents and a host of big-boned, confident relatives, taking delivery with characteristic American razzmatazz. Then there are the Yazdans, pretty, nervous Ziba (her family 'only one generation removed from the bazaar') and carefully assimilated Sami, with his elegant, elusive Iranian-born widowed mother Maryam, the grandmother-to-be, receiving their little bundle with wondering discretion. Every year, on the anniversary of 'Arrival Day' their two extended families celebrate together, with more and more elaborately competitive parties, as tiny, delicate Susan, wholesome, stocky Jin-ho and, later, her new little sister Xiu-Mei, take roots, become American. While Maryam, the optimistic pessimist, confident that if things go wrong - as well they may - she will manage as she has before, contrarily preserves her 'outsider' status, as if to prove that, despite her passport, she is only a guest in this bewildering country. Full of achingly hilarious moments and toe-curling misunderstandings, Digging to America is a novel with a deceptively small domestic canvas, and subtly large themes - it's about belonging and otherness, about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right, about striving for connection and goodness against all the odds. And the end catches you by the throat, ambushes your emotions when you least expect it, as only Tyler can.

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