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Dramatic,
Insightful

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The Other Americans: A Novel
by Laila Lalami

Published: 2019-03-26
Hardcover : 320 pages
2 members reading this now
17 clubs reading this now
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Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members
From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, author of The Moor's Account--a timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

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Introduction

From the Pulitzer Prize finalist, author of The Moor's Account--a timely and powerful new novel about the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story, all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture.

Late one spring night, Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant in California, is walking across a darkened intersection when he is killed by a speeding car. The repercussions of his death bring together a diverse cast of characters: Guerraoui's daughter Nora, a jazz composer who returns to the small town in the Mojave she thought she'd left for good; his widow Maryam, who still pines after her life in the old country; Efrain, an undocumented witness whose fear of deportation prevents him from coming forward; Jeremy, a former classmate of Nora's and a veteran of the Iraq war; Coleman, a detective who is slowly discovering her son's secrets;  Anderson, a neighbor trying to reconnect with his family; and the murdered man himself.
 
As the characters tell their stories, the invisible connections that tie them together--even while they remain deeply divided by race, religion, or class--are slowly revealed. When the mystery of what happened to Driss Guerraoui unfolds, a family's secrets are exposed, a town's hypocrisies are faced, and love, in its messy and unpredictable forms, is born.

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by Anne F. (see profile) 08/26/24

 
by regina s. (see profile) 05/25/20

 
by kristin w. (see profile) 04/13/20

 
  "Another book about the same old same old...immigration issues hidden under a murder mystery"by Gail R. (see profile) 04/27/19

The Other Americans, Laila Lalami, author; Mozhan Marno, P.J. Ochlan, Adenrele Ojo, narrators
“The Other Americans” is ostensibly a mystery about an accident investigation. An elderly m
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