Everything I Never Told You

About this book

A haunting debut novel about a mixed-race family living in 1970s Ohio and the tragedy that will either be their undoing or their salvation Lydia is dead. But they dont know this yet ... So begins the story in this exquisite debut novel about a Chinese American family living in a small town in 1970s Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter a girl who inherited her mothers bright blue eyes and her fathers jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue--in Marilyns case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker in James case that Lydia be popular at school a girl with a busy social life and the center of every party. When Lydias body is found in the local lake the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed tumbling them into chaos. James consumed by guilt sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn devastated and vengeful is determined to find a responsible party no matter what the cost. Lydias older brother Nathan is certain the neighborhood bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But its the youngest of the family Hannah who observes far more than anyone realizes--and who may be the only one who knows the truth about what happened. A profoundly moving story of family history and the meaning of home Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait exploring the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family and uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters fathers and sons and husbands and wives struggle all their lives to understand one another.