The Other Americans

A Novel

By: Laila Lalami

Narrated by: 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.

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.