"Real Americans is a grand novel that explores the American psyche, dramatizing the fundamental American belief in the ability to change the world and improve humanity. Rachel Khong shows infinite and colorful perceptions of the world, which are often leavened with wisdom. Besides being a page turner, this book is also an eye-opener, imaginative and exhilarating."--Ha Jin, author of Waiting

"Real Americans traverses time with verve and feeling. Khong captures how people can be strange to themselves, how bewilderment can be a site of creation (or change, or becoming)."--Raven Leilani, author of Luster

"Gorgeous, heartfelt, soaring, philosophical and deft, Real Americans flips the multigenerational novel inside out. Fate, honesty, our bargains with life. You will keep turning it over and over in your mind."--Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less Is Lost

"Aglow with love in its many forms, suffused with questions of where--and to whom--we belong, Real Americans is a book of rare charm. Khong untangles the roots of family with a wry, tender attention that will leave readers as comforted as they are challenged."--C Pam Zhang, author of How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Land of Milk and Honey

"Rachel Khong's gripping second novel explores how biology, our parents' abstract hopes for us, sheer luck, and the forces of history itself make us who we are. Real Americans is both a tender story of the intimate relationships between people and a sharp examination of very big questions of ethics, politics, and fate."--Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind