“My father was killed on a spring night four years ago, while I sat in the corner booth of a new bistro in Oakland.” So begins Laila Lalami’s fourth novel, which centers on the suspicious hit-and-run killing of Driss Guerraoui, an elderly Moroccan immigrant in a small Mojave desert town. Lalami, who won a Pulitzer for her last novel, weaves together the voices of nine different narrators, from an undocumented laborer to Driss’s daughter, as the mystery unfolds. A finalist for this year’s National Book Award, The Other Americans is a vivid portrait of a place where everyone feels alienated from their neighbors.
Buy now: The Other Americans