Everything I Never Told You

Set in a small town in Ohio during the 1970s, Everything I Never Told You follows the delicate domestic world of the Lee family. Marilyn and James Lee have placed all their unfulfilled hopes on their middle child, Lydia. Her mother dreams of seeing her become a doctor, while her father longs for her to be socially popular and widely accepted. Beneath this immense burden of expectation, the household balances precariously on unspoken pressures.

When Lydia's body is discovered in the local lake, the fragile equilibrium holding the family together collapses completely. In the aftermath of tragedy, James and Marilyn struggle with unbearable grief and guilt that threaten to destroy their marriage. Meanwhile, older brother Nathan looks for someone to blame, and quiet younger sister Hannah watches the unraveling from the corners of the home.

Celeste Ng's debut novel offers a sensitive and absorbing exploration of family dynamics, cultural identity, and the hidden distances that can exist between parents and children, husbands and wives.