Nora Guerraoui left a small town in the Mojave the day she departed for college, but after receiving the news that her father, Driss, had been killed in a hit-and-run accident, she returns to her hometown. Suddenly, she is forced to confront quite a few unresolved issues between her and the remaining members of her family: her mother Maryam and sister Salma.

Nora is a bit lost. She is a musician in love with music and composing, but her career and love life are not headed in the right direction. Then, all of a sudden, her father is dead and she has to face her mother, who has never approved of her career choice. To make matters worse, she must deal with unexpected shattering secrets that have emerged following her father’s death. Moreover, she will have to bear the brunt of her sister’s hostility after the family finds out that Driss left Nora a significant amount of money.

Nora is at a crossroads in her life and has to decide between continuing to pursue a career in music and keeping her father’s legacy (his restaurant) alive. During her return, she reconnects with her high school acquaintance Jeremy, now a police officer and an Iraqi war veteran, who has his own fair share of issues.

Full review available at: <a href="https://www.bookreporter.com/reviews/the-other-americans">Bookreporter</a>

Laila Lalami does it again. Another page-turner of a novel that is as prescient as it is compelling. Immigration is certainly always a hot topic in the US and more so during this Trump era. Lalami looks closely at the life of an immigrant family through the events surrounding the patriarch's death. As nine narrators give us their versions of what happened and how they're dealing with it, we see an America that we thought we knew but with more layers and conflicts below the surface. Through it all, Lalami manages to make us understand the multiple sides of the immigration debate and revisit and reflect on our own stances. A deceptively quick read but with a story that stays with us long after having read it.