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About the Book
"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet. So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue-in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together tumbles into chaos, forcing them to confront the long-kept secrets that have been slowly pulling them apart. James, consumed by guilt, sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to find a responsible party, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is certain that the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest of the family-Hannah-who observes far more than anyone realizes and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened. A profoundly moving story of family, history, and the meaning of home, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family, and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another"--Book Synopsis
The acclaimed debut novel by the author of Little Fires Everywhere. "A taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense. --O, the Oprah Magazine Explosive . . . Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family. --Entertainment Weekly"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet." So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia's body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.
Review Quotes
"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." --Alexander Chee, The New York Times Book Review "Both a propulsive mystery and a profound examination of a mixed-race family, Ng's explosive debut chronicles the plight of Marilyn and James Lee after their favored daughter is found dead in a lake." --Entertainment Weekly "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 TimesTender and merciless all at once . . . Vital in all the essential ways. --Jesmyn Ward "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 "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 "A subtle meditation on gender, race and the weight of one generation's unfulfilled ambitions upon the shoulders--and in the heads--of the next . . . Ng deftly and convincingly illustrates the degree to which some miscommunications can never quite be rectified." --San Francisco Chronicle "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 moves gracefully back and forth in time, into the aftermath of the tragedy as well as the distant past, and into the consciousness of each member of the family, creating a series of mysteries and revelations that lead back to the original question: what happened to Lydia? . . . 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
"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 Bones." --Marie Claire "The first chapter of Celeste Ng's debut novel is difficult--the oldest daughter in a family is dead--but what follows is a brilliantly written, surprisingly uplifting exploration of striving in the face of alienation and of the secrets we keep from others. This could be my favorite novel of the year." --Chris Schluep, Parade "The emotional core of Celeste Ng's debut is what sets it apart. The different ways in which the Lee family handles Lydia's death create internal friction, and most impressive is the way Ng handles racial politics. With a deft hand, she loads and unpacks the implications of being the only Chinese American family in a small town in Ohio." --Kevin Nguyen, Grantland "Beautiful and poignant . . . deftly drawn . . . . It's hard to believe that this is a debut novel for Celeste Ng. She tackles the themes of family dynamics, gender and racial stereotyping, and the weight of expectations, all with insight made more powerful through understatement. She has an exact, sophisticated touch with her prose. The sentences are straightforward. She evokes emotions through devastatingly detailed observations." --Cleveland Plain-Dealer "Perceptive . . . a skillful and moving portrayal of a family in pain . . . It is to Ng's credit that it is sometimes difficult for the reader to keep going; the pain and unhappiness is palpable. But it is true to the Lees, and Ng tells all." --Minneapolis Star Tribune "Impressive . . . In its evocation of a time and place and society largely gone but hardly forgotten, Everything I Never Told You tells much that today's reader should learn, ponder and appreciate." --St. Louis Post-Dispatch
About The Author
CELESTE NG grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Shaker Heights, Ohio. She attended Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and son. She is the author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere.Dimensions (Overall): 7.7 Inches (H) x 5 Inches (W) x .6 Inches (D)
Weight: .48 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Number of Pages: 297
Genre: Juvenile Fiction, Fiction + Literature Genres
Sub-Genre: Literary
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Format: Paperback
Author: Celeste Ng
Language: English
Street Date: May 12, 2015
TCIN: 16996662
UPC: 9780143127550
Item Number (DPCI): 059-04-5549
Origin: Made in the USA
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Estimated ship dimensions: 6 inches length x 1 inches width x 8 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1 pounds
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4.6 out of 5 stars with 16 reviews
100% would recommend
3 recommendations
Decent book
3 out of 5 stars
Thumbs up graphic, would recommend
sydneys333 - 2 years ago, Verified purchaser
This book was decent. It took me a while to get into. The plot can be a little difficult to follow but I do like the way the author writes.
READ THIS BOOK!
5 out of 5 stars
Thumbs up graphic, would recommend
KC - 4 years ago
This was such a beautiful and profound book about grief and projection of insecurity. Even though you get mad at most of the characters, you learn more about them and want to sympathize with their pain. It was raw and emotional.
Heavy With Grief
5 out of 5 stars
Thumbs up graphic, would recommend
- 6 years ago
This is not a feel-good book. It drowns you in grief and chokes you with secrets. It deals with family dynamics, gender roles, racial discrimination, and death. This is the story about the interracial family in the 1970s in a small Ohio town and how they deal with their favorite daughter's shocking death. Was it suicide or was she murdered?
The Lee family dynamic was full of underlying messages that were not well communicated and often conflicted. Parents having different expectations for the same child. Siblings fighting over attention but only one getting it. Therefore, there are many cases of misunderstandings that cut to the core. Celeste Ng did a fantastic job of making each member of the family a complex with their substantial secrets. Each of them hid their struggles and they all seemed just out of reach from each other. It was a heavy read as the narrative changed between each family member including flashbacks from Lydia, the deceased. It was also a hard read because one of the underlying themes is that you can't always achieve your dreams exactly as you wish because unexpected life circumstances will throw you out of orbit.
My favorite character in this book is Hannah. My heart went out to her as she was the most innocent and the most forgotten. She seemed to be a vehicle to move the story along as it can get stuck sometimes dwelling in the grief. She also seemed to channel the inner child in all of them that was desperate to connect the family.
I would recommend this book for adult readers who are looking for something heavy and complex. This is not a light-hearted book about families coming together with a happy ending. This is full of grief and misunderstanding. I would not recommend this book for readers who may be offended or triggered by the following: violence, infidelity, misogyny, racial discrimination, sexually suggestive scenarios, parental abandonment, gender roles, and the death of a sibling, child, and/or parent.