by An Na
First published 2007
Mina has built the perfect facade. She earns straight A grades, leads the Honor Society, and heads to Harvard in the fall. She works shifts at her family's dry cleaning business and helps care for her hearing impaired younger sister. Everyone sees the model daughter who does everything right. Inside, Mina carries a different truth. Her carefully constructed life feels false. The summer before senior year changes everything when Ysrael arrives to work for her family. The young migrant worker dreams of making music and sees through Mina's performance. He asks her a simple question that terrifies her more than any college interview or family expectation. What does she actually want? For the first time, Mina faces someone she cannot deceive. She must decide whether to maintain her perfect image or discover who she might become if she stops pretending.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Harvard, United States
Period: 21st-century
192 pages · Paperback · Speak