num_pages: 304
description: A fierce debut novel about mothers and daughters haves and have-nots and the stark realities behind the American Dream A waitress at the Betsy Ross Diner Elsie hopes her nickel-and-dime tips will add up to a new life. Then she meets Bashkim who is at once both worldly and nave a married man who left Albania to chase his dreamsand wound up working as a line cook in Waterbury Connecticut. Back when the brass mills were still open this bustling factory town drew one wave of immigrants after another. Now its the place they cant seem to leave. Elsie herself the granddaughter of Lithuanian immigrants falls in love quickly but when she learns that shes pregnant Elsie cant help wondering where Bashkims heart really lies and what hell do about the wife he left behind. Seventeen years later headstrong and independent Luljeta receives a rejection letter from NYU and her first-ever suspension from school on the same day. Instead of striking out on her own in Manhattan shes stuck in Connecticut with her mother Elsiea fate she refuses to accept. Wondering if the key to her future is unlocking the secrets of the past Lulu decides to find out what exactly her mother has been hiding about the father she never knew. As she soon discovers the truth is closer than she ever imagined. Told in equally gripping parallel narratives with biting wit and grace Brass announces a fearless new voice with a timely tender and quintessentially American story.
language: English
title: Brass
publisher: Random House