This debut got all kinds of buzz. Reviews used words like "quirky" (NPR) and "darkly funny" (PopSugar). From the publisher: "Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father’s condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief."

Khong’s intimate second novel is a profound meditation on race, class, identity, and the complexity of family. The multigenerational epic almost reads like three connected novellas, as we meet three different generations of the Chen family in 1999 NYC, 2021 PNW and New England, and 2030 San Francisco (with many memories of 1960s China). This novel poses big questions, while satisfyingly withholding pat answers: what makes us who we are? What is family? How can we justify keeping secrets from those we love? And what does it mean to be a “real” American?