My Year Abroad

Next up on my reading list is Chang-rae Lee’s MY YEAR ABROAD—mainly because I heard it described as an “obsessive food novel.” It’s the story of a young man named Tiller, who returns to New Jersey after a crazy and traumatic year living abroad (the reveal of what actually happened only comes at the end). He moves in with Val, a former mobster’s wife who’s now in the witness protection program, and befriends Pong Lou, a local entrepreneur trying to invent the next miracle energy drink. Again, I haven’t read the book yet, but given that all I think about these days is food and the travel I cannot yet indulge in, it seems like a perfect quarantine read. 

—Julia Hammer, Creative Executive