From the award-winning author of Native Speaker and On Such a Full Sea, an exuberant and entertaining story of a young American whose life is transformed when a Chinese-American businessman suddenly takes him under his wing on a global adventure.

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.