Rental House

<b><br>ONE OF NPR’S “BOOKS WE LOVE” 2024<br><br>“One of the most nuanced, astute critiques of America now I’ve read in years. And it’s also frequently hilarious.<b>”<br><b>—<i>Los Angeles Times</i><br><br><b>“</b>[For] basically anyone who is breathing, <i>Rental House</i> is a must-read."<br><i>—San Francisco Chronicle<br></i></b><br></b> “Sharp, insightful, occasionally heartbreaking, and incredibly relatable.”<br><b>—Gabrielle Zevin, author of <i>Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow</i><br><br>“For anyone who’s experienced demanding parents, misunderstanding in-laws, a vacation-gone-wrong, or mid-life questions about how to reconcile your own personality liabilities with those of the person you love most.”<br>—Elif Batuman, author of <i>The Idiot</i></b><br><br>From the award-winning author of <i>Chemistry, </i>a sharp-witted, insightful novel about a marriage as seen through the lens of two family vacations</b><br><br>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. <br><br>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?<br><br>With her “wry, wise, and simply spectacular” style (<i>People</i>) and “hilarious deadpan that recalls Gish Jen and Nora Ephron” (<i>O, The Oprah Magazine), </i>Weike Wang offers a portrait of family that is equally witty, incisive, and tender.