A Cameroonian chauffeur drives a Lehman Brothers boss straight into the 2008 crash.
Who drives the story
A hardworking, optimistic immigrant from Cameroon who lies his way into a chauffeur job and a false asylum claim, then watches the financial crisis and a denied asylum case shatter both. He chooses return over ruin.
Jende's wife, a pharmacy student at Borough of Manhattan Community College working as a home health aide, who wants an American degree and life. She resists deportation, refuses Cindy's money for her pregnancy, and ends the book at the ocean in Limbe, carrying the dream forward.
The Lehman Brothers executive whose wealth and stability are destroyed by the 2008 crash. He cuts Jende's hours, refuses Neni's plea for legal help, and retreats into depression as his marriage collapses.
Clark's troubled wife, battling anxiety and depression with medication and alcohol, who befriends Neni at the Hamptons house. She offers Neni money to abort her pregnancy and remains inside her privileged, unhappy world.
Also in the story
Clark's college-age son, critical of his father's wealth and the financial industry, a standing tension in the Edwards household.
The lawyer handling Jende's asylum case, who warns him that the fabricated persecution claim could end in deportation if discovered.
A fellow Cameroonian woman in New York and Neni's friend, who warns her about the fragility of immigrant life.
Jende and Neni's young son, who leaves New York with them in early 2009.
How they are connected
Jende's wife, a pharmacy student at Borough of Manhattan Community College working as a home health aide, who wants an American degree and life.
She resists deportation, refuses Cindy's money for her pregnancy, and ends the book at the ocean in Limbe, carrying the dream forward.
He cuts Jende's hours, refuses Neni's plea for legal help, and retreats into depression as his marriage collapses.
He cuts Jende's hours, refuses Neni's plea for legal help, and retreats into depression as his marriage collapses.
Clark's troubled wife, battling anxiety and depression with medication and alcohol, who befriends Neni at the Hamptons house.
Clark's college-age son, critical of his father's wealth and the financial industry, a standing tension in the Edwards household.
The lawyer handling Jende's asylum case, who warns him that the fabricated persecution claim could end in deportation if discovered.
A fellow Cameroonian woman in New York and Neni's friend, who warns her about the fragility of immigrant life.
Jende and Neni's young son, who leaves New York with them in early 2009.
Jende and Neni's young son, who leaves New York with them in early 2009.
Go deeper
The American dream, priced and rationed · Two families, one collapse · The lie that builds a life · Women paying the bills of men's ambitions
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
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