Review
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This intriguing tale of unhappy families will have you
gripped from the opening line . . . No wonder it beat Hilary
Mantel and Stephen King to win 's book of the year (Stylist)
An acute portrait of family psychopathology - this debut crime
thriller is a surprise choice as 's book of the year... There is
much here that might impress Pulitzer and Man Booker judges...Ng
brilliantly depicts the destruction that parents can inflict on
their children and on each other (Mark Lawson, Guardian)
The mysterious circumstances of 16-year-old Lydia Lee's tragic
death have her loved ones wondering how, exactly, she spent her
free time. This ghostly debut novel calls to mind The Lovely
s (Marie Claire)
If we know this story, we haven't seen it yet in American
fiction, not until now... Ng has set two tasks in this novel's
doubled heart-to be exciting, and to tell a story bigger than
whatever is behind the crime. She does both by turning the nest
of familial resentments into at least four smaller, prickly
mysteries full of secrets the family members won't share... What
emerges is a deep, heartfelt portrait of a family struggling with
its place in history, and a young woman hoping to be the
fulfillment of that struggle. This is, in the end, a novel about
the burden of being the first of your kind-a burden you do not
always survive (New York Times Book Review)
Ng constructs a mesmerizing narrative that shrinks enormous
issues of race, prejudice, identity, and gender into the
miniaturist dynamics of a single family. A breathtaking triumph,
reminiscent of prophetic debuts by Ha Jin, Chang-rae Lee, and
Chimamanda Adichie, whose first titles matured into spectacular,
continuing literary legacies (Library Journal, starred review)
Excellent . . . an accomplished debut . . . heart-wrenching . . .
Ng deftly pulls together the strands of this complex,
multigenerational novel. Everything I Never Told You is an
engaging work that casts a powerful light on the secrets that
have kept an American family together-and that finally end up
tearing it apart (Los Angeles Times)
A powerhouse of a debut novel, a literary mystery crafted out of
shimmering prose and precise, painful observation about racial
barriers, the burden of familial expectations, and the basic
human thirst for belonging... Ng's novel grips readers from page
one with the hope of unraveling the mystery behind Lydia's
death-and boy does it deliver, on every front (Huffington Post)
Cleverly crafted, emotionally perceptive . . . Ng sensitively
dramatizes issues of gender and race that lie at the heart of the
story . . . Ng's themes of assimilation are themselves deftly
interlaced into a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening
suspense (O, The Oprah Magazine)
Ng is masterful in her use of the omniscient narrator, achieving
both a historical distance and visceral intimacy with each
character's struggles and failures . . . On the surface, Ng's
storylines are nothing new. There is a mysterious death, a family
pulled apart by misunderstanding and grief, a struggle to fit
into the norms of society, yet in the weaving of these threads
she creates a work of ambitious complexity. In the end, this
novel movingly portrays the burden of difference at a time when
difference had no cultural value . . . Compelling (Los Angeles
Review of Books)
Wonderfully moving . . . Emotionally precise . . . A beautifully
crafted study of dysfunction and grief...[This book] will
resonate with anyone who has ever had a family drama (Boston
Globe)
Book Description
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Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet.
After sixteen-year-old Lydia goes missing and her body turns up
in the lake, the rule it as a suicide. But Lydia's family
are determined to search for clues to find out what really
happened...