Real Americans: A novel Audiobook

Quotes

• Khong masterfully explores a family splintered by science, struggling to redefine their own lives after uncovering harrowing secrets. Real Americans is a mesmerizing multigenerational novel about privilege, identity and the illusions of the American dream.

  — Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half

• “Real Americans is a grand novel that explores the American psyche, dramatizing the fundamental American belief in the ability to change the world and improve humanity. Rachel Khong shows infinite and colorful perceptions of the world, which are often leavened with wisdom.  Besides being a page turner, this book is also an eye-opener, imaginative and exhilarating.

  — Ha Jin, author of Waiting “Real Americans traverses time with verve and feeling. Khong captures how people can be strange to themselves, how bewilderment can be a site of creation (or change, or becoming).

• Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft, Real Americans flips the multigenerational novel inside out. Fate, honesty, our bargains with life. You will keep turning it over and over in your mind.

  — Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less Is Lost

• Aglow with love in its many forms, suffused with questions of where—and to whom—we belong, Real Americans is a book of rare charm. Khong untangles the roots of family with a wry, tender attention that will leave readers as comforted as they are challenged.

  — C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey

• Rachel Khong’s gripping second novel explores how biology, our parents’ abstract hopes for us, sheer luck, and the forces of history itself make us who we are. Real Americans is both a tender story of the intimate relationships between people and a sharp examination of very big questions of ethics, politics, and fate.

  — Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

• *One of the Most Anticipated Books of 2024 at TIME*

• *A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024, at: Oprah Daily, Today, TIME, Kirkus, LitHub, New York Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, BookPage, The Story Exchange, and The Rumpus*

• If you liked Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, read Real Americans by Rachel Khong...[Rachel Khong] returns, painting on a larger canvas, in this story about three generations of a Chinese American family...Different voices follow, in a multilayered look at family and identity.

  — The Washington Post

• [Real Americans is a] plot-rich, spiraling, multigenerational epic [that] possesses the same heartrending humanity and deceptively subtle portrayal of characters' unseen depths [as Rachel Khong's debut]—so impossible to relate, so essential to everything. As in life, the love is in the details.

  — Annie Bostrom, Booklist

• By encompassing a family as a whole, [Real Americans] asks big questions about our lineage and futures, how much is really up to us, whether the fact of our pasts guarantee our fate, or whether we have agency over the lives we live.

  — "Most Anticipated Books of 2024," Literary Hub

• Rachel Khong’s gripping second novel explores how biology, our parents’ abstract hopes for us, sheer luck, and the forces of history itself make us who we are. Real Americans is both a tender story of the intimate relationships between people and a sharp examination of very big questions of ethics, politics, and fate.

  — Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind

• *A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024, at publications including: The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Today, TIME, Kirkus, Goodreads, Vogue, LitHub, New York Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Vulture, BookPage,  San Francisco Chronicle, The Story Exchange, Bustle, Town & Country, and The Rumpus.*

• [Real Americans is a] plot-rich, spiraling, multigenerational epic [that] possesses the same heartrending humanity and deceptively subtle portrayal of characters' unseen depths [as Rachel Khong's debut]—so impossible to relate, so essential to everything. As in life, the love is in the details.

  — Annie Bostrom, Booklist

• Imaginative...expansive...intimate... Real Americans is a profound, riveting, and loving journey of betrayal and forgiveness, of words left unsaid, that will provide rich food for thought for book clubs and independent readers alike.

  — Jaclyn Fulwood, Shelf Awareness

• [A] sweeping, smart, and totally engrossing story about destiny, determination, and what truly makes us who we are [that] explores [these themes] with style and smarts.

  — "Must Read Books of 2024," Town & Country

• How much do our families shape our identities? In her second novel, Rachel Khong, founder of The Ruby SF, follows the love, loss, striving and inheritances woven throughout three generations to answer this question.

  — Hannah Bae, Datebook, San Francisco Chronicle

• It's a tale as old as time: Poor girl meets rich boy, they fall in love, and they live happily ever after. Well, not quite... A profound read.

  — People

• With shades of magical realism, [Real Americans] considers destiny, race, and privilege as its three main characters confront how their lives have been shaped by a confluence of biology, world events, their parents’ choices, and pure luck. Ultimately the novel excavates the tricky endeavor of breaking free from preordained destiny.

  — "The Best Books of 2024 So Far," Vogue

• *A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024, at publications including: The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Today, TIME, Kirkus, Goodreads, Vogue, LitHub, New York Magazine, Amazon, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, NPR Pop Culture Happy Hour, Real Simple, Vanity Fair, Vulture, BookPage, San Francisco Chronicle, The Story Exchange, Bustle, Town & Country, Alta, Our Culture, theSkimm, The Millions, The Rumpus... and more!*

• A disorienting, masterful, shape-shifting novel about multiracial identity.... What makes Americans 'real'? Is it our competitive drive? Our craving for wealth and status? Our insatiable quest for scientific advancement? Or is it—inevitably—the color of our skin and eyes? This concern spirals quietly, like a double helix, through Rachel Khong’s enigmatic second novel, Real Americans.... [Rachel] Khong manages these twisting threads with masterful deftness.... [An] irresistible puzzle of a novel.

  — Aimee Liu, Los Angeles Times

• If you liked Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, read Real Americans by Rachel Khong...[Rachel Khong] returns, painting on a larger canvas, in this story about three generations of a Chinese American family...Different voices follow, in a multilayered look at family and identity.

  — The Washington Post

• An absolute page turner, this multi-generation family saga is quietly suspenseful. The dynamics between lovers, parents, and children is simultaneously simply and elegantly written. Spanning between the 1960s to present day, Khong weaves a gripping tale you are, for sure, not going to want to miss.

  — "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2024," Kami Tei, Amazon Editor

• Unforgettable...Vibrant, tender and one to pass onto a friend.

  — "Best New Books of Spring," Oprah Daily

• This multigenerational stunner asks a thought-provoking question: Do we have any control over our destiny, or do some people just get lucky?

  — Real Simple

• [A]n ambitious, spacious book...I was entirely entranced...from the start, and I talked about it endlessly to anyone who would listen when I finished. I’d like to announce that this will be the buzzy book of the season (it should be, anyway!), and you don’t want to miss out.

  — Jana Pollack, Skimm Reads editor

• It's a tale as old as time: Poor girl meets rich boy, they fall in love, and they live happily ever after. Well, not quite... A profound read.

  — People

• [A] sweeping, smart, and totally engrossing story about destiny, determination, and what truly makes us who we are [that] explores [these themes] with style and smarts.

  — "Must Read Books of 2024," Town & Country

• With shades of magical realism, [Real Americans] considers destiny, race, and privilege as its three main characters confront how their lives have been shaped by a confluence of biology, world events, their parents’ choices, and pure luck. Ultimately the novel excavates the tricky endeavor of breaking free from preordained destiny.

  — "The Best Books of 2024 So Far," Vogue

• A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024, at publications including: The New York Times, Oprah Daily, Today, TIME, and more!

• If you liked Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, read Real Americans by Rachel Khong.

  — The Washington Post

• Remarkable... Folded into [Real Americans] are doomed love stories, fancy parties, a subplot about epigenetics, Chinese people who look white and yummy treats... The book also poses a dizzying array of questions: What does it mean to be American, and who gets to say who is one?

  — Robert Ito, The New York Times

• A…masterful, shape-shifting novel about multiracial identity….What makes Americans 'real'? Is it our competitive drive? Our craving for wealth and status? Our insatiable quest for scientific advancement? Or is it—inevitably—the color of our skin and eyes?... [Rachel] Khong manages these twisting threads with masterful deftness.... [An] irresistible puzzle of a novel.

  — Aimee Liu, Los Angeles Times

• [Rachel] Khong layers the lives of her characters to challenge how well we can really know one another... [Khong]…captures the feeling of floating in the in-between, not firmly tethered to one pole of identity or another but instead looking for a way to feel secure in your own space... And that title—Real Americans—evokes more questions than any single book could answer. What is American, and what is real?

  — Lucy Feldman, TIME

• Real Americans is both a novel of ideas and of beautiful sentences. Khong's prose is a pleasure to read... even as the questions she raises are chilling, indeed.

  — May-lee Chai, Minneapolis Star Tribune

• Riveting in its unexpected turns, Real Americans is a novel about past mistakes and their echoes — and a reminder that those histories need not be binding.

  — Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle

• An absolute page turner, this multi-generation family saga is quietly suspenseful... Spanning between the 1960s to present day, Khong weaves a gripping tale you are, for sure, not going to want to miss.

  — "Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2024," Kami Tei, Amazon Editor

• Unforgettable...Vibrant, tender and one to pass onto a friend.

  — "Best New Books of Spring," Oprah Daily

• This multigenerational stunner asks a thought-provoking question: Do we have any control over our destiny, or do some people just get lucky?

  — Real Simple

• [A]n ambitious, spacious book...I was entirely entranced...from the start, and I talked about it endlessly to anyone who would listen when I finished.

  — Jana Pollack, Skimm Reads editor

• By encompassing a family as a whole, [Real Americans] asks big questions about our lineage and futures, how much is really up to us.

  — "Most Anticipated Books of 2024," Literary Hub

• Real Americans is a grand novel that explores the American psyche, dramatizing the fundamental American belief in the ability to change the world and improve humanity. Rachel Khong shows infinite and colorful perceptions of the world, which are often leavened with wisdom. Besides being a page turner, this book is also an eye-opener, imaginative and exhilarating.

  — Ha Jin, author of Waiting

• Aglow with love in its many forms, suffused with questions of where—and to whom—we belong, Real Americans is a book of rare charm. Khong untangles the roots of family with a wry, tender attention that will leave readers as comforted as they are challenged.

  — C Pam Zhang, author of Land of Milk and Honey

• Khong masterfully explores a family splintered by science, struggling to redefine their own lives after uncovering harrowing secrets. Real Americans is a mesmerizing multigenerational novel about privilege, identity and the illusions of the American dream.

  — Brit Bennett, author of The Vanishing Half