num_pages: 277
description: In what is perhaps her richest and most deeply searching novel, Anne Tyler gives us a story about what it is to be an American, and about Maryam Yazdan, who after thirty-five years in this country must finally come to terms with her “outsiderness.”Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport—the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the Yazdans, Maryam’s fully assimilated son and his attractive Iranian American wife. Each couple is awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. After the babies from distant Asia are delivered, Bitsy Donaldson impulsively invites the Yazdans to celebrate with an “arrival party,” an event that is repeated every year as the two families become more deeply intertwined.Even independent-minded Maryam is drawn in. But only up to a point. When she finds herself being courted by one of the Donaldson clan, a good-hearted man of her vintage, recently widowed and still recovering from his wife’s death, suddenly all the values she cherishes—her traditions, her privacy, her otherness—are threatened. Somehow this big American takes up so much space that the orderly boundaries of her life feel invaded.A luminous novel brimming with subtle, funny, and tender observations that cast a penetrating light on the American way as seen from two perspectives, those who are born here and those who are still struggling to fit in.
language: English
title: Digging to America
titlecomplete: Digging to America
characters: Ziba Yazdam, Sooki "Susan", Dave Donaldson, Sami Yazdam, Jin-Ho, Maryam Yazdam, Bitsy Donaldson
genres: Audiobook, Book Club, Literary Fiction, Novels, Adult Fiction, Adoption, Adult, Family, Fiction, Contemporary
ratings_count: 22105
places: Baltimore, Maryland
awards: awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Orange Prize
category: Fiction Shortlist, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Dublin Literary Award
publisher: Alfred A. Knopf