Paper Names - by Susie Luo (Hardcover)

About the Book

"There's Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who we meet at age nine and follow through adulthood, and who grapples with the expectations of a first generation American and her own personal desires. Finally, there's Oliver, a handsome white lawyer with a dark family secret and who lives in the building where Tony works. A violent attack causes their lives to intertwine in ways that will change them forever."--

Book Synopsis

*A Reader's Digest Best Book of 2023*
*A Publishers Lunch Buzz Book*
*A Book of the Month Club Pick*
*A Brit+Co Book to Read in 2023*
*A Town & Country Best Book to Read in May*
*A Good Morning America Buzz Book Pick*

An unexpected act of violence brings together a Chinese-American family and a wealthy white lawyer in this propulsive and sweeping story of family, identity and the American experience--for fans of Jean Kwok, Mary Beth Keane and Naima Coster.

Set in New York and China over three decades, Paper Names explores what it means to be American from three different perspectives. There's Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who we meet at age nine and follow through adulthood, and who grapples with the expectations of a first generation American and her own personal desires. Finally, there's Oliver, a handsome white lawyer with a dark family secret and who lives in the building where Tony works. A sudden attack causes their lives to intertwine in ways that will change them forever.

Taut, panoramic and powerful, debut novelist Susie Luo's Paper Names is an unforgettable story about the long shadows of our parents, the ripple effect of our decisions and the ways in which our love transcends difference.

Review Quotes

"Susie Luo's spectacular debut Paper Names is the story of the Zhang family, Chinese immigrants struggling to achieve the American dream and the Wright family, gluttons of privilege intent to bury their scandalous past. Explosive and riveting, the story whipstitches in and out of time like a golden needle. When 9-year-old Tianfei becomes Tammy, she becomes a character in her new American life in a world she cannot control. Twenty years on, identity, love, ambition and grief become the threads of Tammy's story as she discovers who she is on her own terms. Brilliant."--Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Left Undone

"A panoramic debut."--BookBub

"[A] well-woven tale about the legacies that are passed down through generations, even when family members upend their lives in search of distance from one another."--BookPage

"Susie Luo is a wonderful new talent as she paints a picture of a building in New York, the residents, the drama and more."--Good Morning America

"A moving story of immigrants in America."--Town & Country

"Empathetic, propulsive, and timely, Luo's confident plotting shines in this story of three Americans attempting to redefine themselves in a changing country as their pasts and futures collide. A magnificent debut."--J. Ryan Stradal, New York Times bestselling author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

"A stunningly accomplished debut about two very different families, the struggling Zhangs and the wealthy powerful Wrights, both on a collision course with the American Dream and with one another, passing down their legacies and secrets through the generations. Luo has crafted an absolutely gorgeous novel about the ripples of parental expectations, the force of memory, and the fierceness of love. So alive and real, you don't merely read this wondrous novel as much as you get to live it."--Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You

"With a keen eye for detail, a strong sense of pacing, and a deep understanding of human nature, Susie Luo crafts a moving portrait of two families whose fates intertwine. Deftly moving back and forth in time, she explores race, class, assimilation, loyalty, betrayal and ambition. Paper Names is a sensitive and timely novel."--Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Train

"Paper Names has the rare one-two punch of plot twists and sharp, absorbing prose. Luo portrays the ache of the impossible distance between parents and children, the inevitable corruption caused by wealth and privilege, the hopes, fears, and ambitions of a father navigating life in a new country, and the life-defining decisions of woman balancing her own success with sudden tragedy and long-buried truth, all while infusing each scene with a sense of deep love and longing."--Katie Runde, author of The Shore

"Paper Names is a sharp and honest look at family, immigration, and all that we trade away to find ourselves--but it is also a literary page-turner that is as unsettling as it is full of grace. Susie Luo's debut is unblinking, nimble, and written with the kind of clarity one expects from a seasoned author. The word stunning is not hyperbole here."--Brian Castleberry, award-winning author of Nine Shiny Objects

"Paper Names is one of the most compelling evocations of the American dream I've ever read, an unwaveringly honest accounting of the costs of achieving that dream. Here you're in the hands of a supremely gifted storyteller who's unwinding a tale that is by turns tragic and redemptive, and always engrossing. I found the book impossible to put down, as much for its propulsive narrative as for its carefully observed portrait of the imperfect nature of love, and the fraught, untamable state of being human."--Jack Livings, award-winning author of The Blizzard Party

"[A] compelling exploration of identity, trauma, and the false promises of the American Dream."--International Examiner