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Cover of Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Everything I Never Told You

  • 297 pages · about 5 hours
  • First published 2014
  • 15 editions

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1 About this 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.

Good for readers who want: a thriller and a mystery.

  • Grief
  • Thrillers
  • Mystery
  • Chinese Americans
  • Interracial marriage
  • Loss (Psychology)
  • Psychology
  • Asian Americans

2 About Celeste Ng

Born 1980

Celeste Ng ( sə-LEST ING; Chinese: 伍绮诗; born July 30, 1980) is an American writer and novelist. Her short stories have been published in a variety of literary journals. Ng's first novel, Everything I Never Told You, released in 2014, won the Amazon Book of the Year award as well as praise from critics. Ng's short story "Girls at Play" won a Pushcart Prize in 2012 and a 2015 Alex Award.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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