Rachel Khong

In Real Americans, a multigenerational novel that spans three continents, Khong asks the big questions: Who are we? How do we decide what’s important to us – and how do we become who we are? Reaching backwards and forward in time, from the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre to Y2K to 2021, Khong tells the story of Lily Chen, her son, and her mother, a brilliant genetic scientist, who escaped the Communists in China. Along the way, Khong explores class, race, genetics, scientific ethics, ambition, and the power of a lotus seed. The novel was a May Read With Jenna’s Book Club Pick. Khong’s debut novel, Goodbye, Vitamin, was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and Esquire. Born in Malaysia to a Malaysian Chinese family, Khong lives in Los Angeles. 

"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." – San Francisco Chronicle. "Real Americans is both a novel of ideas and of beautiful sentences.” – Minneapolis Star Tribune