Our Guest Author:
Council Literary Series: Rachel Khong in conversation with Erich Schwartzel
11am | Reception
11:30am | Author Program
12:30pm | Lunch and Book Signing
The Maybourne Beverly Hills (225 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210)
Parking Information
Please note that parking will not be hosted. Guests have the following options:
- Valet Parking at The Maybourne – $23 for the first 3 hours, then $3 per additional half-hour.
- Self-Parking at Beverly Canon Gardens (242 N Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210) – Free for the first 2 hours, then $3 per additional half-hour. A $5 flat rate applies for vehicles entering after 6 PM. Daily maximum: $22.
If you have any questions, please email The Council office at thecouncil@lfla.org or call 213.228.7506.
Real Americans
The novel begins on the precipice of Y2K in New York City, when Lily Chen meets Matthew, heir to the Maier pharmaceutical empire. They fall in love, not knowing that their relationship will resurface decades’ worth of family secrets. Nearly 20 years later, Lily is a single mother raising her son Nick on an isolated Washington island. When Nick sets out to find his biological father, the journey threatens to raise more questions than it provides answers.
“A…masterful, shape-shifting novel about multiracial identity…What makes Americans ‘real’? Is it our competitive drive? Our craving for wealth and status? Our insatiable quest for scientific advancement? Or is it—inevitably—the color of our skin and eyes?…[Rachel] Khong manages these twisting threads with masterful deftness…[An] irresistible puzzle of a novel.”—Aimee Liu, Los Angeles Times [Read More]
“Riveting in its unexpected turns, Real Americans is a novel about past mistakes and their echoes — and a reminder that those histories need not be binding.”—Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle [Read More]
Rachel Khong
Rachel Khong is the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, winner of the California Book Award for First Fiction, and named a Best Book of the Year by NPR; O, The Oprah Magazine; Vogue; and Esquire. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Cut, The Guardian, The Paris Review, and Tin House. In 2018, she founded The Ruby, a work and event space for women and nonbinary writers and artists in San Francisco’s Mission District. She lives in California.
Erich Schwartzel
Erich Schwartzel has reported on the film industry for The Wall Street Journal since 2013. His first book, Red Carpet, reported from four continents on China’s growing influence campaign over Hollywood and the global entertainment business. Previously, he covered energy and the environment for The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where his work won the Scripps Howard Award for Environmental Reporting. He lives in Los Angeles.
