num_pages: 672
description: 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 protg 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 immersionon 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.
language: English
title: My Year Abroad
publisher: Random House Large Print