The Son of Good Fortune

A Recommended Book From:USA Today * The Chicago Tribune * Book Riot * Refinery 29 * InStyle *The Minneapolis Star-Tribune *Publishers Weekly * Baltimore Outloud * Omnivoracious * Lambda Literary * Goodreads * Lit Hub * The MillionsFINALIST FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZEWINNER OF THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARDFrom award-winning author Lysley Tenorio, comes a big hearted debut novel following an undocumented Filipino son as he navigates his relationship with his mother, an uncertain future, and the place he calls homeExcel spends his days trying to seem like an unremarkable American teenager. When hes not working at The Pie Who Loved Me (a spy-themed pizza shop) or passing the time with his girlfriend Sab (occasionally in one of their towns seventeen cemeteries), he carefully avoids the spotlight.But Excel knows that his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online.The old man they live with is not his grandfather, but Maximas lifelong martial arts trainer. And years ago, on Excels tenth birthday, Maxima revealed a secret that he must keep forever. We are TNTtago ng tago, she told him, hiding and hiding.Excel is undocumentedand one accidental slip could uproot his entire life.Casting aside the paranoia and secrecy of his childhood, Excel takes a leap, joining Sab on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello City. Populated by drifters, old hippies, and washed-up techiesand existing outside the normal constructs of American societyHello City offers Excel a chance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?Thrumming with energy and at once critical and hopeful, The Son of Good Fortune is a luminous story of a mother and son testing the strength of their bond to their countryand to each other.