Rental House
Publisher,Riverhead Books US
Publication Date,
Format, Paperback
Weight,
No. of Pages, 224
Shelf: FICTION / ADULT FICTION / ASIAN LITERARY FICTION
Kindly ask our staff if you cannot locate the shelf.
ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024 • From the award-winning author of Chemistry, a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations
Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection (“To use a dishwasher is to admit defeat,” says her father), while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife.
Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate, and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?
About the Author
Weike Wang is the author of three novels, Chemistry, Joan is Okay, and Rental House. The recipient of a PEN/Hemingway Award, a Whiting Award, and an O. Henry Prize, she was also named a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Ploughshares, and Best American Short Stories. She lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University, Barnard College, and the University of Pennsylvania.
