Fresh Off the Boat

by Eddie Huang

First published 2013

Eddie Huang grows up caught between two worlds in suburban America. His father runs restaurants and carries secrets from Taiwan. His mother protects her family with fierce determination. Eddie experiments with everything mainstream culture offers, from Christianity to comfort food, but nothing fits. He discovers his tribe among society's outcasts: skateboarders, drug dealers, hip hop fans, and sneaker collectors. These misfits become his rainbow coalition as he searches for identity. Eddie blazes through America's underground scenes, trying to understand who he is. He lives ten thousand miles from his ancestral home, anchored only by complicated love for his family and deep passion for food. His journey reveals the struggle of every American outsider seeking belonging in the margins.

Genres: family, family-life, american, coming-of-age, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, asian-american

Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family

Setting: America, Taiwan

Period: 21st-century

288 pages · Hardcover · Spiegel & Grau

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