{"product_id":"the-son-of-good-fortune-a-novel-isbn-9780062059574","title":"The Son of Good Fortune: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA Recommended Book From:\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eUSA Today * The Chicago Tribune * Book Riot * Refinery 29 * InStyle * \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Minneapolis\u003cbr\u003eStar-Tribune * \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublishers Weekly * Baltimore Outloud * Omnivoracious * Lambda Literary * Goodreads * Lit Hub * The Millions\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFINALIST FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWINNER OF THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom award-winning author Lysley Tenorio,\u003cbr\u003ecomes a big hearted debut novel following an undocumented Filipino son as he\u003cbr\u003enavigates his relationship with his mother, an uncertain future, and the place\u003cbr\u003ehe calls home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eExcel spends his days trying to seem like an unremarkable American\u003cbr\u003eteenager. When he’s not working at The Pie Who Loved Me (a spy-themed pizza\u003cbr\u003eshop) or passing the time with his girlfriend Sab (occasionally in one of their\u003cbr\u003etown’s seventeen cemeteries), he carefully avoids the spotlight.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Excel knows\u003cbr\u003ethat his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina\u003cbr\u003eB-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online. The old man\u003cbr\u003ethey live with is not his grandfather, but Maxima’s lifelong martial arts\u003cbr\u003etrainer. And years ago, on Excel’s tenth birthday, Maxima revealed a secret\u003cbr\u003ethat he must keep forever. “We are ‘TNT’—tago ng tago,” she told him, “hiding and\u003cbr\u003ehiding.” Excel is undocumented—and one accidental slip could uproot his entire\u003cbr\u003elife.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCasting aside the paranoia and secrecy of his childhood, Excel takes a\u003cbr\u003eleap, joining Sab on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello\u003cbr\u003eCity. Populated by drifters, old hippies, and washed-up techies—and existing\u003cbr\u003eoutside the normal constructs of American society—Hello City offers Excel a\u003cbr\u003echance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of\u003cbr\u003etrying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put\u003cbr\u003edown roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThrumming\u003cbr\u003ewith energy and at once critical and hopeful, The Son of Good Fortune is a\u003cbr\u003eluminous story of a mother and son testing the strength of their bond to their\u003cbr\u003ecountry—and to each other.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e“Lysley Tenorio's \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e is flat-out brilliant, and what makes it so wondrous is how Tenorio controls the complexity of the narrative. How can a book be filled with so much humor, such a light touch, and yet still touch that weird place in our heart that can break us apart? Excel and his mother, Maxima, are characters you won't forget, and the world in which they exist, stuck between belonging and not belonging, does not deserve them.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Propulsive prose, captivating characters, and vital details of immigrant life.... A masterfully constructed story of identity and ambition and an authentic portrait of one unforgettable Filipino family.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Filled with the kind of absurdities that accompany the most difficult truths, Lysley Tenorio's brilliant, witty novel about the love of a mother and son, the immigrant experience in America, and the surreality of our current reality, is bold, ambitious, and unforgettable.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRefinery 29\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"You know the feeling of picking up a book and realizing within ten pages that what you’re reading is something... special? Something different? Well, that’s what it’s like reading Lysley Tenorio’s novel.... A funny and kind novel about home and identity.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOmnivoracious\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"When you don’t belong where you are, where exactly do you belong? Lysley Tenorio’s engaging and comic first novel about immigration and identity asks this question with compassion and savage humor.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Full of heart, wisdom, and humor, \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e is an unforgettable novel of mothers and sons, secrets and truth, and what it means to belong, told through the story of one undocumented Filipino family.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLisa Ko, author of The Leavers\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e defies categorization — it’s an immigrant tale, a character study, a heartfelt and hilarious adventure.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eInStyle Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“In this perceptive and sensitive novel, Lysley Tenorio views the troubled American Dream through the eyes of Excel, an undocumented immigrant literally born in the air between the Philippines and the United States. The result, in \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e, is a nuanced and subtle account of that most basic American dynamic, the melancholic and sometimes devastating fluctuation between promise and failure, happiness and its opposite.\"   - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eViet Thanh Nguyen, author of The Sympathizer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“I have a new favorite novel on my shelf.... A field study of the glamorous allure of the American dream and the eternal ache of its exclusion. Tenorio’s great talent lies in underpinning every moment of flash and humor with love, longing and the ever-forlorn question of identity. This novel is like a stone skipped across the Pacific, all the way to Manila. Visualize it, that series of rings lingering on the ocean’s surface, expanding, intersecting, intermingling to form a chain that anchors these characters, connects them, and after years of binding them, sets them free.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"The Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e is a deeply compassionate and richly imagined novel about the families we make and the families who make us. Lysley Tenorio peels back such labels as “American,” “Filipino,” “immigrant,” and “undocumented” to show us a mother and son in all their bright humanity—and the forms of love, connection, and survival available to them in a broken country. Tenorio is a master storyteller, and—like his brilliant collection, \u003cem\u003eMonstress\u003c\/em\u003e—this is a gorgeous, searing wonder of a book.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMia Alvar, author of In the Country\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lysley Tenorio has fortunately graced us with his exquisite prose again… Tenorio painstakingly crafts the evolution of a prickly relationship between mother and son.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAsian American Lit Fans\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tenorio, himself a Filipino immigrant, accurately and compassionately portrays the immigrant experience.  Despite its universality, \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e doesn’t lack for originality…. The story finds a witty voice and sets a unique tone. Despite the drudgery and harshness of immigrant life, Tenorio explores the humanity in the tribulations and creates characters who are as lovable as they are real. With his debut novel, Tenorio excavates joy from the immigrant experience.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBookPage\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[\u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e] sympathetically illuminates the tenuous lives of undocumented immigrants, those who are ‘not really here’.… Tenorio's characters are humorous and loving, in spite of the exclusion overshadowing their very existence.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tenorio’s insistence on the specificity of his characters’ dreams and longings is its own kind of argument for their right to be here…. An affecting portrayal of just how potently a parent can shape the expectations of her child…. His story is a tribute to the extreme inner strength it takes to make any life decision look like fate.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[A] fierce, revelatory literary experience…. Tenorio has written a resonant story about what one family is willing to do to “protect the child.” It’s seamlessly interwoven with cogent explorations of hybrid identity, racism, immigration history, shifting familial bonds, parental sacrifice, socioeconomic disparity, and even alternative social models…. [Tenorio] humanizes the lives imperiled by shifting immigration policies.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eChristian Science Monitor\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“A bewitching and highly approachable novel on what it’s like to be an undocumented American…. With his sensitive and subdued style of writing, Tenorio has crafted a novel that speaks to the experience of the undocumented, as well to what we all must hide in order to survive.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Diego Union-Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“This story is bursting with heart and wisdom, humor and hope. Tenorio's gifts as a writer are on display in this expertly constructed, gorgeously written tale of a family haunted by past mistakes, struggling toward the future. Immersive in its rich detail, it gathers momentum to its affecting and powerful conclusion. A remarkable novel by an author I plan to follow for years to come.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCharles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown and How To Live Safely in A Science Fictional Universe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Living with this extraordinarily human undocumented family will make you laugh, weep, and think, sometimes all at once. Tenorio brilliantly makes these characters so original that they’re nearly tangible.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eJames Hannaham, author of Delicious Foods\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With compassion and quirky brilliance, Lysley Tenorio’s debut novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e, delivers memorable characters who seek to carve out meaningful lives while caught in situations by turns timely and utterly shocking. With grace and earned authority, Tenorio shows us what it means to live life on the margins and in the shadows, and reminds us that even the humblest among us deserves respect.  I loved every page.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNatalie Baszile, author of Queen Sugar\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mordant and moving.... Written with great empathy and sly humor.... This is a wonderful achievement.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Tenorio, author of the short-story collection \u003cem\u003eMonstress\u003c\/em\u003e (2012), the San Francisco Chronicle's Book of the Year, is back with a highly anticipated debut novel…. Tenorio creates an unusual perspective on Filipino culture and inspires readers to reflect on what it means to be an undocumented American…. Thoughtful.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“[\u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e is] a reminder that many experiences comprise the definition of what makes a person American…. Tenorio skillfully sketches out what an all-American boy like Excel experiences in his in-betweenness…. A damning yet clear-eyed acknowledgement that for many, the American dream is merely survival.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSalon\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Lysley Tenorio’s funny and poignant second novel, \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e, couldn’t come at a better time…. Tenorio skillfully wrings high comedy from his characters’ boxed-in lives in a country that doesn’t know what to do with them…. Timely.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Sharp and compassionate…. Tenorio is a gifted, expressive writer about the Filipino American diaspora…. A powerful story about what it takes to uncover a sense of oneself when you’ve been forced to keep it under wraps.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eUSA Today\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Tenorio's \u003cem\u003eThe Son of Good Fortune\u003c\/em\u003e, so propulsive, so over-the-top with life, I fell into it, deeply. This novel restored my faith in the power of a story to heal our self-inflicted wounds. We need such books, now more than ever.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeter Orner, author of Maggie Brown \u0026amp; Others: Stories\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ecco","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889298764005,"sku":"NP9780062059574","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062059574.jpg?v=1730230954","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-son-of-good-fortune-a-novel-isbn-9780062059574","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}