What I didn't tell you

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What I did not tell you , the English original title Everything I Never Told You , is the debut novel by the writer Celeste Ng and was published in the USA in 2014 . Celeste Ng spent six years writing the novel, which mixed elements from the family novel with those from the detective novel . The rights have been sold in more than 20 countries.

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On May 3, 1977, Lydia Lee disappears. Her body is recovered the next day from the lake in the small town in Ohio where she lived with her family. Lydia's parents James and Marylin are in shock after their favorite daughter dies. In the course of the police investigations, they find out that Lydia was not as popular and good at school as they thought, on the contrary, she was a loner and could not withstand the pressure to perform at school. The death of their child forces James and Marilyn, but also Lydia's two siblings, Nathan and Hannah, to look back on their previous lives and to find explanations for their death. The novel accordingly consists of numerous flashbacks of all family members:

James, the gifted son of Chinese immigrants, has tried his whole life to belong and to find his place in society by adapting as much as possible. As a university professor, he met Marilyn in a seminar at Harvard University in 1957 . Marilyn, who despises her mother's role as a housewife from an early age, wants to become a doctor. When she meets James, she is fascinated by him precisely because of his otherness and the two begin a relationship. When Marilyn finds out that she is pregnant, the two decide to get married. Marilyn is appalled when her mother opposes it after learning of James of Chinese descent.

Although Marilyn initially planned to continue her medical studies after the birth of her son Nathan, she remains a housewife for eight years after the second pregnancy with Lydia. When her mother dies, she returns to her old home. There she falls into a crisis when she realizes that she is leading exactly the life as a housewife and mother that her dead mother had always hoped for her. Marilyn decides to leave her family without leaving a message and resumes her medical school. James is left believing that she left her family because of his Asian origins and no longer wants to suffer the social pressures of being a social outsider.

Marilyn stayed away for several weeks, during which time she discovered that she was pregnant for the third time. She returns home and realizes that her family is more important to her than her career plans. Instead, she encourages Lydia to become a doctor and teaches her intensively in math and other natural sciences. Since Marilyn's absence, James, too, has placed more and more hopes on Lydia: He wants his daughter to be popular and - unlike him - well integrated. He rejects Nath because he reminds him of himself as a child and an outsider. Nath becomes increasingly jealous of Lydia and one day pushes her into the lake, even though she cannot swim. However, when Nath notices how readily Lydia lets herself fall into the water, he realizes how heavy the weight of her parents' expectations rests on Lydia, and he gets her out of the water. Nath becomes the only ally for Lydia and is the only one who can give her support.

As a teenager, Lydia threatens to collapse under the pressure of expectation from her parents. She can no longer keep up in the additional courses that Marilyn urges her to take. In addition, she no longer has the strength to pretend to her father that she has a fulfilling social life. She begins to spend time with Jack, the boy in the neighborhood who is hated by Nath. When Nath is accepted at Harvard, Lydia is afraid of losing her only confidante and she tears up his promise. However, she is caught by Nath, who then withdraws from Lydia. Finally, on the night of her death, Lydia finds herself on the bank of the lake. She wants to decide how to go on with her life.

In the aftermath of Lydia's death, Marilyn finds out that James has started a relationship with one of his employees , Louisa, who is also of Asian descent. For the first time, she learns of James' feeling that Marilyn is unhappy in their marriage because he and their children are of Asian descent. Marilyn and James speak openly and gradually approach each other again.

Nath still holds Jack responsible for the death of his sister and confronts her on the lakeshore with his suspicion. When it comes to fights and Nath himself falls into the water, he begins to understand and accept that he will never find out how Lydia's death came about. He finds his own way of dealing with what has happened.

Prizes and awards

  • 2014: Amazon Book of the Year Award
  • 2015: Massachusetts Book Award
  • 2015: Alex Award
  • 2014/2015: Asian / Pacific American Award For Literature In Adult Fiction
  • 2015: Medici Book Club Prize

expenditure

  • Everything I never told you . New York: Penguin Press, 2014
  • What I didn't tell you. Novel . From the American English by Brigitte Jakobeit. Munich: dtv, 2016 ISBN 978-3-423-28075-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hector Tobar: Review 'Everything I Never Told You' a moving tale of a dysfunctional family . In: Los Angeles Times . 4th July 2014.
  2. ↑ Alexander Chee: Sunday Book Review, The Leftovers 'Everything I Never Told You,' by Celeste Ng . In: The New York Times . 15th August 2014.
  3. ↑ Clea Simon: Book Review 'Everything I Never Told You' by Celeste Ng . In: The Boston Globe . July 1, 2014.
  4. ↑ Jessica Gross: Celeste Ng . Retrieved June 7, 2015.
  5. ↑ a b Official website for the title (English) . Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  6. ↑ Hermione Hoby: Amazon book of the year winner Celeste Ng: 'Writing's like shouting into the world' . Retrieved June 7, 2015.