When America Turns on Its Own: A Dystopian Story Too Close to Home by Author MN Lee

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is MN Lee, author of the book Proof of Origin. MN Lee is a fiction author with a soft spot for oversteeped tea, tangled gardens, and stories that blur the line between the real and the uncanny. She writes across speculative and literary genres, weaving sharp prose, political unease, and moments of quiet magic into narratives that linger. She is hard at work on her next novel, The Ajumma Point, a feminist comedy about supernatural midlife transformation.

In my book review, I stated that Proof of Origin is a contemporary women's fiction that could be torn from today's headlines. This near-future story looks at politics gone awry, with the latest executive order calling for a lineage purity test. Anyone not 'American enough' is no longer welcome in the US and sent to camps that are far too reminiscent of the concentration camps of WWII.

We follow three characters - Jenny, born in the US to Vietnamese immigrant parents, Huy, Vietnamese but highly influential in the US government - until he's not, and Charlotte, a woman on the arm of an up and coming politician. What happens as their lives criss-cross and each has to confront difficult truths?

Lee's rendition of the rhetoric from the US government is very haunting - from the views on immigrants to their views on woman, birth control, family, books, and more. It is reminiscent of things one might hear on fringe-leaning social media posts, which makes her story even more chilling.

But we also see what happens to people who, once erased from their country, find a way to move forward and build again. Lee's ability to show resilience, and how it is forged, is beautiful, despite the circumstances.

I think this is a must-read book, if for no other reason than to help people understand what happens when you take something like patriotism and transform it into nationalism that has gone too far.

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You can follow Author MN Lee

Website: https://mnleewrites.com/

IG: @mn.lee.writes

Purchase Proof of Origin on Amazon:

Paperback: https://amzn.to/425iTaS

Ebook: https://amzn.to/3VtsrIX

Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com

FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor

IG: @terimbrown_author

X: @terimbrown1

Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors

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