Large print edition
INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A New York Times Notable Book * Named a Best Book of the Year by Vogue, TIME, and Marie Claire
A
manifesto to happiness-the one found when you stop running from who you
are. -New York Times Book Review
An extraordinary book, acrobatic on the level of the
sentence, symphonic across its many movements-and this is a book thatmoves…My
Year Abroad is a wild ride-a caper, a romance, a bildungsroman,
and something of a satire of how to get filthy rich in rising Asia. -Vogue
From the award-winning author of Native Speaker and On
Such a Full Sea, an exuberant, provocative story about a young American
life transformed by an unusual Asian adventure - and about the human
capacities for pleasure, pain, and connection.
Tiller is an average American college student with a good heart but minimal
aspirations. Pong Lou is a larger-than-life, wildly creative Chinese
American entrepreneur who sees something intriguing in Tiller beyond his
bored exterior and takes him under his wing. When Pong brings him along on
a boisterous trip across Asia, Tiller is catapulted from ordinary young man
to talented protege, and pulled into a series of ever more extreme and
eye-opening experiences that transform his view of the world, of Pong, and
of himself.
In the breathtaking, precise, elliptical prose that Chang-rae Lee is
known for (The New York Times), the narrative alternates
between Tiller’s outlandish, mind-boggling year with Pong and the strange,
riveting, emotionally complex domestic life that follows it, as Tiller
processes what happened to him abroad and what it means for his future. Rich
with commentary on Western attitudes, Eastern stereotypes, capitalism,
global trade, mental health, parenthood, mentorship, and more, My
Year Abroad is also an exploration of the surprising effects of
cultural immersion-on a young American in Asia, on a Chinese man in
America, and on an unlikely couple hiding out in the suburbs. Tinged at
once with humor and darkness, electric with its accumulating surprises and
suspense, My Year Abroad is a novel that only Chang-rae
Lee could have written, and one that will be read and discussed for years
to come.
