Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever. Annalie and Margaret are sisters who agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common. Nineteen-year-old Margaret is driven, ambitious, and keenly aware of social justice issues. She couldn't wait to leave their oppressive small hometown and take flight in New York. Meanwhile sweet, popular, seventeen-year-old Annalie can't think of anything worse - she loves their town, and feels safe coasting along in its confines. Until she arrives home one day to find a gut-punching racial slur painted on their garage door.Margaret immediately flies home, expecting to find her family up in arms - but she's shocked to learn they want to forget about it. Their mom is worried about what it might stir up, and Annalie just wants to have a 'normal' summer. Margaret and Annalie find their relationship hanging by a thread - and then, when it looks like the thrill of first love (Annalie) and lost love (Margaret) might bring them together... a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever.

A sweeping debut novel about first love, complicated family dynamics, and the pernicious legacy of racism, This Place Is Still Beautiful follows two estranged teen sisters who reunite in their small Midwestern town when their family becomes the victim of a hate crime. The Flanagan sisters are as different as they come. Seventeen-year-old Annalie is bubbly, sweet, and self-conscious, whereas nineteen-year-old Margaret is sharp and assertive. Margaret looks just like their mother, while Annalie passes for white and looks like the father who abandoned them years ago, leaving their Chinese immigrant mama to raise the girls alone in their small, predominantly white Midwestern town. When their house is vandalized with a shocking racial slur, Margaret rushes home from her summer internship in New York City. She expects outrage. Instead, her sister and mother would rather move on. Especially once Margarets own investigation begins to make members of their community uncomfortable. For Annalie, this was meant to be a summer of new possibilities, and she resents her sisters sudden presence and insistence on drawing negative attention to their family. Meanwhile Margaret is infuriated with Annalies passive acceptance of what happened. For Margaret, the summer couldnt possibly get worse, until she crosses paths with someone she swore shed never see again: her first love, Rajiv Agarwal. As the sisters navigate this unexpected summer, an explosive secret threatens to break apart their relationship, once and for all. This Place Is Still Beautiful is a luminous, captivating story about identity, sisterhood, and how our hometowns are inextricably a part of who we are, even when we outgrow them.--Provided by publisher.