★ A Harsh Coming-of-Age Story Under Transnational Narrative: From the slums of London to the luxury mansions of Beijing, a girl is torn and reborn between two worlds and two "parents", revealing the identity dilemma of the second generation of immigrants.
★ "Dirty Kindness" Subverts the Definition of Family Love: The drug-addicted adoptive father conveys warmth through violence, while the elite biological mother covers up evil with elegance. The unconventional family relationships provoke deep contemplation on love and harm.
★ Suspense and Lyricism Interwoven in the Narrative Art: The mysterious suicide of an old woman links up a transnational conspiracy. The text is filled with poetic pain, like a flower struggling to survive in the basement.

In the damp basement of a London slum, an Asian girl lives with her drug-addicted adoptive father. He is foul-mouthed and reeks of sweat, yet he is the only source of warmth for her before the age of 12 - teaching her how to survive in a hostile world with cold instant noodles and rough Band-Aids. When racial discrimination and school bullying corner her, the father's violence and protection become two sides of the same coin.
A mysterious suicide tears apart the lives of this dysfunctional father-daughter duo: An old white woman searching for her granddaughter is found dead in front of their door, leading to the father's imprisonment. During a prison visit, the girl uncovers her biological mother's dark secrets - that the now glamorous Chinese noblewoman may have orchestrated the death with a printed address.
With a sharp pen, this novel dissects the wounds of immigration, class, and family bonds. When the labels of "developed country" and "third world" both fail, a girl searches for her own twisted yet tenacious "flower" between the dirty basement and the hypocritical mansion.

Chen Jiarong, born in 1998, currently resides in Beijing and holds a Master's degree in History from University College London. Since 2013, she has been publishing poetry works in both Chinese and English, which have appeared in various journals and magazines such as “Macao Daily“, “Poetry Tide“, “Young Writers“ and the “KCL Literary Journal“ (King's College London Literary Journal).