woodslesbian 's review for:

We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies by Tsering Yangzom Lama

4.0

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This was an absolutely beautifully written, multigenerational story following a family of Tibetan refugees with an emphasis on motherhood, alienation, and spirituality. The prose in We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies is lush and gorgeous, blending the different timelines, settings, and characters together smoothly across their journeys. The pace is definitely slow and very personal, but I found that this allowed for each character’s experiences with displacement to be explored fully, and it absolutely served the story being told well. It does a fantastic job of exploring the experiences of Tibetan refugees, especially in terms of a crisis that is often overlooked and ignored. However, think the absolute strongest point of this novel is the familial bonds it explores; regardless of if between sisters, mothers and daughters, or fathers to children, each one was captured with so much tenderness and nuance. The ending of this one absolutely made me cry and was so powerful, with a sense of grief for both people and country that really stuck with me.