As the title hints, themes of difference, prejudice, and alienation run through Lalami’s powerful novel The Other Americans. Told from nine points of view—extended pieces of testimony folded together like the body of an accordion—the book is both a family drama and a literary crime procedural. It builds from what is ostensibly a hit-and-run accident in the Mojave Desert. The victim is a Moroccan immigrant, a diner owner who, after 9/11, had his doughnut shop set on fire in a hate crime. He is grieved by a wife and two daughters—each of whom contends with his death differently. Starting at a slow burn, the nine perspectives gradually reveal the persistence of old and deep community divisions that not only haunt the present-day hit-and-run investigation but also endanger a budding romance and family bonds. Lalami renders her characters’ lives in the desert with carefully chosen, precise detail and taps into universal conflicts with perceptive wisdom.•
THE OTHER AMERICANS, BY LAILA LALAMI
