Books like Real Americans
In New York in 1999 Lily Chen, twenty-two and the daughter of Chinese immigrants, is scraping by on an unpaid internship when she falls for Matthew, the son of an enormously rich family. In 2021 their teenage son, Nick, who knows little of where he comes from, goes looking for his father.
Explore books like this on the map12 books for readers of Real Americans
The Bastard of Istanbul
Armanoush, an Armenian-American girl from Arizona, secretly visits her stepfather's family in Istanbul, a houseful of women, and befriends Asya, the illegitimate daughter of the youngest aunt.
The Echo Maker
After a truck crash on a Nebraska road, a young man wakes believing his sister is an impostor, and a famous neurologist arrives as sandhill cranes gather on the Platte River.
Black Cake
Byron and Benny Bennett, estranged siblings, come home to California after their mother's death to find she has left them a long voice recording, the story of her life in the Caribbean, and a black cake in the freezer.
No-No Boy
Ichiro Yamada comes home to Seattle in 1946 after two years in an internment camp and two in prison for refusing to swear loyalty to the United States or serve in its army, and finds himself despised by much of the Japanese American community.
What's Mine and Yours
When a North Carolina county brings Black and Latino students from the east side into a mostly white high school, two families, Gee's and Noelle's, are bound together for the next twenty years.
The Names
In 1987 Cora goes to register her newborn son: her violent husband wants him named Gordon, after himself, and her nine-year-old daughter likes Bear, and the novel follows the three different lives that unfold from each name.
Pineapple Street
The Stocktons are old Brooklyn Heights money, and three women live with it: Darley, the eldest daughter, who gave up her inheritance to marry; Georgiana, the youngest, who falls for the wrong man; and Sasha, who married in and is treated as a gold-digger.
The Magnificent Ambersons
In a Midwestern town turning into a city at the turn of the century, George Amberson Minafer, the spoiled heir of its richest family, waits for his comeuppance.
Mika in Real Life
Mika Suzuki, thirty-five and adrift in Portland, gets a phone call from Penny, the daughter she placed for adoption sixteen years ago, and in a panic tells her she has everything together.
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
When Kitty Karr, a white star of Hollywood's golden age, dies, she leaves her fortune to the St. John sisters, three wealthy young Black women in Los Angeles, and Elise, a celebrity in her own right, is left to settle Kitty's affairs and the questions that follow.
Interior Chinatown
A background actor in a Chinatown cop show realises his entire life has been scripted by stereotypes, and breaks the fourth wall to rewrite his story.
Pavilion of Women
On her fortieth birthday, Madame Wu, the serene mistress of a great Chinese household, announces she will choose a concubine for her husband so that she can at last live for herself.