
Everything I Never Told You (Paperback)
Celeste Ng (author)Published: 13/11/2014

A blistering study in grief and belonging that doubles as a gripping mystery of secrets buried in plain sight, this debut ripples with emotion and insight. A novel of difference, the immigrant experience and the changing face of American society; an exquisitely realised work.
'...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.' - New York Times
Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; 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 centre of every party.
But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small town Ohio. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, and his ethnicity, and hers, make them conspicuous in any setting.
When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who observes far more than anyone realises and who may be the only one who knows what really happened.
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
ISBN: 9780349134284
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 240 g
Dimensions: 198 x 128 x 23 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'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
'...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
'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
'[A] moving tale . . . of daughters for whom cultural disconnect is but the first challenge' - Vogue
'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
'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? . . . Compelling' - Los Angeles Review of Books
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“Everything I Never Told You is a wonderfully perceptive debut novel,”
Ohio in the 1970s is not an easy place to grow up, especially if your father is Chinese and your mother is a blond haired all-American. Being the favourite child, and being given the responsibility of making the hopes... More
“A good read ”
Your asking the whys, the what fors , what’s been happening , what has she been thinking and feeling and up to., through out . Brings in the families concerns especially of her fathers of being different , never... More
“A deep, heartfelt story”
It is a deep, heartfelt story of a Chinese-American family struggling with their mixed feelings and regret. At the beginning of the story a teenage girl - Lydia - dies. From there the novel skips from past to present... More
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