Real Americans: A Read with Jenna Pick: A Novel
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the award-winning author of Goodbye, Vitamin: How far would you go to shape your own destiny? An exhilarating novel of American identity that spans three generations in one family and asks: What makes us who we are? And how inevitable are our futures?
"Mesmerizing"—Brit Bennett • "A page turner.”—Ha Jin • “Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"—Andrew Sean Greer • "Traverses time with verve and feeling."—Raven Leilani
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.
Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?
"Mesmerizing"—Brit Bennett • "A page turner.”—Ha Jin • “Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft"—Andrew Sean Greer • "Traverses time with verve and feeling."—Raven Leilani
Real Americans begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when twenty-two-year-old Lily Chen, an unpaid intern at a slick media company, meets Matthew. Matthew is everything Lily is not: easygoing and effortlessly attractive, a native East Coaster, and, most notably, heir to a vast pharmaceutical empire. Lily couldn't be more different: flat-broke, raised in Tampa, the only child of scientists who fled Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Despite all this, Lily and Matthew fall in love.
In 2021, fifteen-year-old Nick Chen has never felt like he belonged on the isolated Washington island where he lives with his single mother, Lily. He can't shake the sense she's hiding something. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
In immersive, moving prose, Rachel Khong weaves a profound tale of class and striving, race and visibility, and family and inheritance—a story of trust, forgiveness, and finally coming home.
Exuberant and explosive, Real Americans is a social novel par excellence that asks: Are we destined, or made? And if we are made, who gets to do the making? Can our genetic past be overcome?
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Community Reviews
This novel reached into the marrow of what it means to inherit dreams, silence, and survival. Real Americans isn’t just a story—it’s a meditation on identity, ancestry, and the quiet ways our lineage shapes us.
Rachel Khong writes with grace and depth, inviting us to question: Who am I beyond the stories I was given?
It left me reflecting on my own roots, the invisible threads that tie us to the past, and how we choose to rewrite—or honor—what we carry forward. A powerful, layered journey across generations.
I feel like it could have been a really good book. I think they should have started on the past and move forward in time instead of going back in time. It left me wanting to know more. But not in a good way of that makes sense. Over all it is a pretty good book.
Rachel is careful to develop the characters, but the trick is she unfolds the story of each character over the book. In my own experience, I did not feel close to any of the characters until I got to the section about Mei. The idea of Real Americans is a discussion in itself. The book tiptoed into science fiction and incorporated history with love, passion, and sadness. I wanted to know Lily more. She was a character I think I most relate to and I wanted more from her. Nick is a compilation of the dreams of his grandparents and parents. But it is not all roses. This book sticks with me, but not sure why? I will be reading more of Khong to see what her style of writing does to draw the reader in.
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