Paper Names

Paper Names is a novel about family, identity and the American experience, set in New York and China over three decades. An unexpected act of violence brings a Chinese-American family into contact with a wealthy white lawyer. The story asks what it means to be American through three perspectives.

Tony is a Chinese-born engineer who now works as a Manhattan doorman. He emigrated to give his family a better life. His daughter Tammy is nine when we first meet her, and the book follows her into adulthood as she weighs the expectations placed on a first-generation American against her own desires. Oliver is a handsome white lawyer who lives in the building where Tony works and carries a dark family secret.

A violent attack ties the three lives together in ways that change each of them permanently. Themes include the long shadow cast by parents, the ripple effects of the choices people make, and love that reaches across difference. Paper Names is Susie Luo's debut novel.