by Rachel Khong
First published 2024
Lily Chen works as an unpaid intern at a media company in New York as 1999 draws to a close. At twenty-two, she struggles financially while her wealthy boyfriend Matthew comes from a pharmaceutical dynasty. Lily grew up in Tampa as the daughter of Chinese scientists who escaped the Cultural Revolution. Two decades later, her fifteen-year-old son Nick lives with her on a remote Washington island. Nick feels out of place and suspects his mother keeps secrets about his past. When he searches for his biological father, his quest uncovers truths that complicate everything he thought he knew. Rachel Khong follows three generations of one family as they navigate questions of belonging, identity, and inheritance in America. The novel examines how genetics, class, and race shape who we become.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, american, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: New York, Tampa, Washington
Period: 1999, 2020s
416 pages · Hardcover · Knopf