Real Americans

A novel

De: Rachel Khong

Narrado por: Louisa Zhu, Eric Yang, Eunice Wong

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • READ WITH JENNA’S MAY BOOK CLUB PICK • From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?

"Mesmerizing"—Brit Bennett • "A page turner.”—Ha Jin • “Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"—Andrew Sean Greer • "Traverses time with verve and feeling."—Raven Leilani

Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.

In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.

In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.

Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?

The strength of Nick to reconnect with his mother’s family.

After many challenges a family reunites after secrets have been discovered. It is a page turner!!!!

Unlikely decisions

Good writing. Story line seemed very unlikely and relied on chance.
Good for discussion or book club

Overall intriguing plot

An enormous piece of the restaurant portion of Nick's story is wrong. A drunk employee of a high end restaurant would not be allowed to jump in, drunk, and go about "helping." Otherwise, good detail on employee behaviors and characteristics.

Really great narration, story a bit hard to follow.

Started out so strong and the last third really dragged and was hard to follow. Strong start but kind of painful to finish and didn’t really wrap up loose ends for me.

Beautiful writing and performance

I loved this book for the first 3/4 of it but the last part of the book was slow and dragged for me. I also didn’t love the ending. The writing was fantastic and the performance was excellent. It would have been 5 stars if the whole book had been consistently great.