Goodreads asked Miranda New:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Miranda New As an immigrant, I really wanted a chance to tell a story about a refugee. But I really wanted to delve into her two selves. When I was in university, I worked at the flower kiosk in Costco. One of the ladies who worked the sample carts had immigrated to America a few years before. I want to say she was originally from Indonesia. She and I chatted a lot in the mornings when there were many people and I remember that one time she told me that she had been a psychiatrist in her home country. But there she was passing out samples at a Costco because her English was not fluent and her license wasn't accepted in America.

When I wrote Amia, I really wanted to capture the sad irony of that story. Which is why I chose to present the story as a back and forth between Amia's life in the Dome and her new existence as a bagger at a grocery store. I wanted to really walk through the frustrating realities that exist for so many immigrants.

As for the Dome, it came from my years here in South Korea. For years the concept of 통일 or reunification has caused a lot of division between Koreans. On the one side, many people want to see the North Koreans free from the horrors of the North Korean regime. On the other hand, most Koreans realize that if they took North Korea back in, there would be a thousand different economic and social difficulties. I tried to reflect that in the story and show how difficult the reunification of a country would be.

flag