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Nights When Nothing Happened
- A Novel
- Narrated by: James Chen
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
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Nights When Nothing Happened
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Publisher's Summary
Named a Best Book of the Year by Time, The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar
“A tender, spiky family saga about love in all its mysterious incarnations.” (Lorrie Moore, author of A Gate at the Stairs and Birds of America)
“Absolutely luminous.... Weaves the transience of suburbia between the highs and lows of a family saga.... Shocks, awes, and delights.” (Bryan Washington, author of Memorial)
From the outside, the Chengs seem like so-called model immigrants. Once Patty landed a tech job near Dallas, she and Liang grew secure enough to have a second child and to send for their first from his grandparents back in China. Isn’t this what they sacrificed so much for? But then little Annabel begins to sleepwalk at night, putting into motion a string of misunderstandings that not only threaten to set their community against them, but force to the surface the secrets that have made them fear one another. How can a man make peace with the terrors of his past? How can a child regain trust in unconditional love? How can a family stop burying its history and forge a way through it, to a more honest intimacy?
Nights When Nothing Happened is gripping storytelling immersed in the crosscurrents that have reshaped the American landscape, from a prodigious new literary talent.
What the critics say
“In this beautiful, unsettling novel, Simon Han captures the state of being awake and yet asleep, of belonging and yet not, of waiting for the moment when the world opens up. With the turn of a crystalline sentence, he is reveals how fragile we are, and what it takes to survive. An unbelievable debut." (Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang)
"Han expertly shifts the ground under the narrative, constantly shaking the snow globe to nudge the reader's perspective away from the familiar.... [the] characters are authentic, vulnerable, and utterly convincing, delivering one dynamite novel. An astutely realized portrait of the collateral damage wrought by the pursuit of the American dream.” (Kirkus Reviews [starred])
"In this exemplary debut, Han explores childhood trauma and the impact words and silence can have on both building and harming relationships. He writes with sensitivity and tenderness, allowing his fully fleshed-out characters to take on lives of their own and tell their heartbreaking perspectives directly to readers. Readers will be gripped by this beautiful debut.”(Booklist)