“Lula, a
twenty-six-year-old Albanian woman living surreptitiously in New
York City on an expiring tourist visa, hopes to make a better life
for herself in America.
When she lands a job as caretaker to Zeke, a rebellious high school senior in
suburban New Jersey,
it seems that the security, comfort, and happiness of the American dream may
finally be within reach. Her new boss, Mister Stanley, an idealistic college
professor turned Wall Street executive, assumes that Lula is a destitute
refugee of the Balkan wars. He enlists his childhood friend Don Settebello, a
hotshot lawyer who prides himself on defending political underdogs, to straighten
out Lula's legal situation. In true American fashion, everyone gets what he
wants and feels good about it. But things take a more sinister turn when Lula's
Albanian "brothers" show up in a brand-new black Lexus SUV. Hoodie,
Leather Jacket, and the Cute One remind her that all Albanians are family, but
what they ask of her is no small favor. Lula's new American life suddenly
becomes more complicated as she struggles to find her footing as a stranger in
a strange new land. Is it possible that her new American life is not so
different from her old Albanian one? Set in the aftermath of 9/11, My New
American Life offers a vivid, darkly humorous, bitingly real portrait of a
particular moment in history, when a nation's dreams and ideals gave way to a
culture of cynicism, lies, and fear. Beneath its high comic surface, the novel
is a more serious consideration of immigration, of what it was like to live
through the Bush-Cheney years, and of what it means to be an American.”
