FOREIGNERS

A class assignment unearths family secrets.

In 1878 China, Duanfang is an ambitious Manchu politician willing to go to great lengths to build a legacy. In 1965, 17-year-old Zheng Yi arrives in Manhattan from Taiwan to spend her senior year at Beecher Preparatory High School on a full-ride scholarship. Navigating the newness in language, country, school and relationships, Yi, who takes the name Audrey, tries to find her footing. Two generations later, in the present day, Dawn Chin enters junior year at her Vermont boarding school after a summer fling she’d like to forget. An AP U.S. History project examining familial history leads Dawn to reach out to Nai Nai, the mysterious and private paternal grandmother who’s shown little interest in her life. Dawn finds an old newspaper clipping placing Nai Nai in New York (not New Hampshire, as she’s told Dawn), which leads her to investigate and uncover a shocking secret history. Using the perspectives of three characters navigating parallel yet distinct experiences, Shen engagingly explores legacy, identity, love, lies, and family ties while also integrating politics, immigration, and healthy (romantic) relationships. The shifting perspectives create propulsive tension, particularly as the contradictions between what the readers know from Audrey’s chapters and what Dawn believes to be true are teased apart.

An immersive, movingly crafted multigenerational family story.