First published 2013
Henry Park stares at the list his wife left behind when she walked out. The words sting: "surreptitious, B+ student of life, illegal alien, emotional alien, Yellow peril: neo-American, stranger, follower, traitor, spy." Henry works as a spy, but the real betrayal runs deeper. He exists between two worlds, Korean and American, never fully belonging to either. His wife saw what he couldn't admit to himself. As a man caught between cultures, Henry fears he has betrayed both sides of his identity. He watches American society from the outside, always uncertain of his place. The distance he maintains as a professional observer mirrors the emotional distance that defines his life. Chang-Rae Lee's debut novel captures the raw experience of living between identities, exploring what it means to be forever foreign in the country you call home.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, asian-american
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, identity-crisis
Setting: America, Korea
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
370 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Books