Caught between the pressure to be a good Canadian girl, her duty to her immigrant parents, and her own personal desires, Angelika Langer must learn to translate not just the three languages she speaks, but also her own inner voice. Her parents left Germany in the early 1950s for a new life after the war, settling first in Quebec then moving to northern Ontario when Angelika is eleven. She struggles to fit in-not Canadian enough for either her French- or English-speaking classmates, not German enough for her family who stayed behind. Seeming to never quite measure up to the expectations of her demanding mother, Angelika exists in a lonely place between worlds, vulnerable and uncertain of her future. Even her passion and talent for competitive skiing becomes unsafe when her coach turns predatory, and her friends and family turn their backs.

Tender, beautiful, and unflinching, A Hyphenated Life is an expertly woven story of coming of age in the sometimes-oppressive shadow of complicated ancestors.