American Dreamy: Fiction for the Fourth - Books, Movies, & More

A Good American
by Alex George

The Meisenheimer family struggle to find their place among the colorful residents of their new American hometown, including a giant teenage boy, a pretty schoolteacher whose lessons consist of more than just music and an spiteful, bicycle-riding dwarf.

Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Separated by respective ambitions after falling in love in occupied Nigeria, beautiful Ifemelu experiences triumph and defeat in America while exploring new concepts of race, while Obinze endures an undocumented status in London until the pair is reunited in their homeland 15 years later, where they face the toughest decisions of their lives.

Dream House
by Valerie Laken

Hoping to rekindle their troubled marriage while renovating a historic house in Ann Arbor, Kate and Stuart Kinzler learn that the house had been the scene of a devastating crime thirty years earlier, when the Price family was beset by misfortunes that culminated in a domestic homicide.

A Free Life
by Ha Jin

In the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Nan Wu, who had studied political science in the U.S. in the mid-1980s, leaves China with his wife, Pingping, and son, Taotao, to seek the freedom of the West, embarking on a migration that takes them through the heart of contemporary America in search of financial stability, belonging, and the American dream.

My New American Life
by Francine Prose

While working for an idealistic college professor, 26-year old Lula, an Albanian trying to make a better life for herself in America, finds her life taking a complicated turn when her Albanian "brothers" return, in this powerful novel set in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street
by Susan Jane Gilman

Russian immigrant Malka arrives in 1913 Manhattan, where she struggles to survive and learns trade secrets from an Italian ices peddler before setting off across America in an ice cream truck with a handsome, illiterate radical to seek their fortunes.

The Unfortunates
by Sophie McManus

Heiress Cecilia Somner's decline in wealth, her affliction with a rare disease and the complicated relationship with her son, George, and his wife, Iris, all culminate in a crime that is as unforgettable as it is unexpected.

We Are Not Ourselves
by Matthew Thomas

Raised by her Irish immigrant parents in a 1940s Queens apartment where alcohol and company combine in mercurial ways, Eileen marries an unambitious scientist with whom she endures an increasingly psychologically dark family life.