Real americans

By Rachel Khong and Khong Rachel

Book Overview

** THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ** 'Insightful and heartfelt' GLAMOUR 'Easy to inhale' GUARDIAN 'Mesmerizing ' BRIT BENNETT, author of THE VANISHING HALF *** New York City, 1999. Lily Chen is an unpaid intern, pursuing the American Dream, when she falls for a young financier - and the life of luxury his vast fortune promises. Everything she wants seems to finally be within reach. But deep down, she knows that her ambitious scientist mother, Mei, imagined so much more for her when she fled the unspoken horrors of Mao's cultural revolution. Twenty years later, Lily is a single parent, estranged from her own family and increasingly isolated from her teenage son, Nick. Desperate to break free from their life on a remote island in Washington State, Nick strives to live better than the generation before him, unable to understand his mother's choices. But when he looks into the past and is unexpectedly confronted by the ghosts of his grandmother's young life in 1960s China, he risks unsettling a legacy of family secrets - passed on from mother, to daughter, to son. Following three generations of one Chinese American family, REAL AMERICANS is a mesmerising, multilayered family drama which explores the choices we make for ourselves, and for our children. Spanning decades and continents, it is a soaring, heartfelt story about fate, fortune, and what it means to belong. *** 'Traverses time with verve and feeling' RAVEN LEILANI, author of LUSTER 'An eye-opener, imaginative and exhilarating' HA JIN, author of WAITING 'Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft' ANDREW SEAN GREER, author of LESS

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1804945366
• ISBN13: 9781804945360
• Release Date: March 2025
• Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.64 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.0" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

An intergenerational family saga that promises more than it delivers

Real Americans flirts with bigger questions without fully claiming them. Real Americans is a page turner. Rachel Khong's pacing is addictive. I kept telling myself "one more chapter" while I was reading this book. The three narrators (Mei, Lily, Nick) feel distinct and give the drama real spark. Still, the book kept hinting at deeper dives -- race, class, eugenics, what being an "American" really means. But where it has a chance to deepdive, it only skims the surface and moves on. These topics are briefly brushed over then the plot is hurried along. A few plot turns had me scratching my head. I won't dive too much into them for sake of revealing spoilers. The final section ties things together, yet still feels unfinished. 3.5/5. Rounded to 4/5. Great momentum and messy love between generations. Yet, don't expect anything a plunge into the big ideas. PS: Why does everyone in this family seem to hate their parents? lol