Everything We Never Had
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD!
From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.
Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.
Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.
Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.
Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.
Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ribay (Patron Saints of Nothing) examines masculinity and familial trauma via four generations of Filipino teens' alternating perspectives in this emotionally resonant tale. In 2020 Philadelphia, Enzo Maghabol's anxiety makes him feel like his head is full of "murder hornets." Their buzzing gets worse when he learns his estranged grandfather will be moving in with his family during the pandemic. Banned from playing football for his Denver school due to his strict father's approach to education, Chris becomes absorbed by the sociopolitical struggles in 1983 Philippines when he begins researching his ancestry, something his father would rather forget. Emil struggles to support himself and his mother while his absent father fights for farm workers' rights in 1965 Stockton, Calif. After emigrating from the Philippines to Watsonville, Calif., in 1929, Francisco finds his dreams of a fresh start waylaid by the hard labor and racial violence he endures in his daily life. Compact storytelling richly layered with Filipino American culture and history provides the backdrop for each father-son relationship as the Maghabols confront personal and familial expectations in both past and present narratives. Ages 12–up.
Customer Reviews
Capturing and riveting
As a 33 year old Filipino American, I saw myself in many of the pages. The anxiety, the moments of enlightenment when father and son finally break the mold, the feeling of not knowing about our culture and the burning interest to rekindle the fire that was lit all those years ago when my Grandma Mena immigrated to the states. A beautiful read and excitement to read the recommended texts.