The Other Americans

A Novel

De: Laila Lalami

Narrado por: Mozhan Marnò, P.J. Ochlan, Adenrele Ojo, Ozzie Rodriguez, Susan Nezami, Ali Nasser, Mark Bramhall, Max Adler, Meera Simhan

Finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction
Finalist for the Kirkus Prize in Fiction
Winner of the Arab American Book Award in Fiction
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, the Washington Post, BookPage, NPR, the Guardian, Variety, New York Public Library, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dallas Morning News, and Kirkus Reviews.

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Moor’s Account, here is a timely and powerful novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant—at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant living in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui’s daughter Nora, a jazz composer who returns to the small town in the Mojave she thought she'd left for good; his widow, Maryam, who still pines after her life in the old country; Efraín, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, an old friend of Nora's and an Iraq War veteran; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son's secrets; Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself.

As the characters—deeply divided by race, religion, and class—tell their stories, connections among them emerge, even as Driss’s family confronts its secrets, a town faces its hypocrisies, and love, messy and unpredictable, is born.

Perfect story. Great story. Wonderfully written.

I really enjoyed this story. Great characters, great plot, and perfect for this time. With the world fighting each other this is the story for us now. Thank you

Enjoyable read

Seemed to bog down at times and drift away from the plot but overall a lovely story.

A beautiful book, masterfully produced.

I liked this book a lot. Humanity, deep physiological understanding and love permeates this book.

In most books, writers are able to flesh out one or two main characters, while the others, supporting characters, are just sketched. Laila Lalami has built individual characters of amazing complexity, very delicately and humanely crafted, people that reveal themselves to us as the story advances. We get a certain impression of a character based on descriptions from others, only to be astonished when we hear the inner dialogue of that particular character.
In all stories, there is an inner speed and it is difficult to maintain the same story speed across multiple story lines, but Ms. Lalami succeeded beautifully, the story is never boring or stalling.

The readers are excellently cast, their voices clear and very well suited to the characters they embody.
A tour de force all around.

Engaging

I like Ms. Lalami’s writing style. She conveys emotions and complexity of her characters well. I liked the characters in this story , no one stands out as amazing or heroic, or free of self pity and at times whining! And perhaps that is why they are all relatable.

Very well narrated . All voices and performances were well done.

Undermined by poor narration

I wish I’d read the book instead. The narration for Jeremy and for Coleman were so bad that I found it difficult to follow the story. Which is too bad because it’s a cleverly told tale of the way we’re all subject to implicit bias, no matter our background. Though some aspects of the plot were easy to predict, there were still some surprises. Unfortunately, I kept thinking I missed important details because I would often tune out when these two characters were carrying the story. If it weren’t for my book club in a few days, I would have returned this and picked up a print copy of the book.

Engaging story; well performed.

I listened to this story while cleaning my house and it made the time fly. I loved the complex characters, the slow unfolding of the story, the underlying police investigation.

Everyone is getting this book for Christmas

This is an amazing psychoanalysis of the ramifications of our past on our future, as well as on our perception of reality, as a whole.

In a time when empathy is running low, this book is a must-read.

Beautiful writing, but a bit shallow.

I finished The Other Americans by Laila Lalami earlier today, and I have mixed feelings. My next novels are listed at the end!

I loved Lalami's voice. Her matter-of-fact descriptions set an amazing tone that reminded me of Steinbeck, earnest and heartfelt. The structure felt authentic. Bouncing between characters to set a rounded view of the world seemed the right choice. There is a major "but" coming, though.

I felt like she went the contrived route. I foresaw the ending early on, so the mystery portion of the text fell short. On top of that, I felt like her glimpses into the lives of all these characters wasn't full enough. They all felt flat with a tiny stick of internal conflict propping them up. The types of conflict included held a lot of promise, but she never satisfied my hunger for exploration or resolution (which is where a lot of my mixed feelings derive from: is life ever satisfying?).

Overall, I enjoyed the read, but it isn't one I would list as one of my favorite reads.

My next novels (yeah, I'm doing two) are: Erotic Stories for Junjabi Widows and Exhalation.

An Immigration Story

The story is uneven. It is almost a great book, but falls short in a few ways. The narration didn't help. The Jeremy reader made the character seem petulant, yet this character had a rich story that I could have liked better if I read the book, I suspect. But who doesn't love Mark Bramhall? The others were adequate but really didn't enrich their character. This might have been improved by a single narrator. The story offered a one of everything character, too: Arab, Mexican, Black, Gay, Veteran, Angry White Guy, Drug Addict...am I leaving anything out? That felt gimmicky to me.

But with all that criticism, I am glad I listened to this book. I suspect Ill think of it time and again as I watch the news and reflect on the world as it is.

Easy to listen to and follow.

I mostly enjoyed the end, when everything came together and it finally made sense (kind of.) I also appreciated the combination of characters and their different backgrounds.