Putsasa Reang's family fled Cambodia when she was just 11 months old, spending nearly three weeks aboard an overcrowded navy vessel before making it to an American naval base in the Philippines. Dahlia AdlerĪ searing memoir that seeks to discover the generational cost of the expectations placed on children by those that sacrifice for them, Ma and Me is a stirring journey through a mother and daughter's relationship. But you wait, because you know some day she'll warm up, just a little bit, and it'll be wondrous to see. Diving into Mallory's mind feels like simultaneously wishing you could hug a friend while fearing you'll crack her brittle bones if you do, and the choice isn't yours anyway because she has no desire to be touched by you. As she carries the weight and memory of their affair through both her past and future, Mallory has to reckon with the ways the affair continues to haunt her, and who she is and can be if she leaves it behind her for good. Through the unnamed woman, who also happens to be a picture book author, artistic Mallory finds not just sex and sophistication, but, in her mind, a mentor. Grief, lust, and growing up coalesce in this quietly compelling novel about a college freshman named Mallory who copes with her mother's death and her burgeoning sexuality by having an affair with an older woman who happens to be a married professor.