| Lily Chen is not endowed with good fortune even though her mother, a scientist, created a backyard full of four-leaf clovers. Chen doesn’t win raffles or lotteries. She scrapes out a meager living as an intern so that she might have a shot at an entry-level gig. “I wasn’t a lucky person,” she tells us. “I never won.” And yet a chance encounter with a kind and dashing man upends her life and, perhaps, her idea of what fortune is. Rachel Khong’s novel, “Real Americans” sprawls over three generations and takes up questions of what we inherit, how we choose our futures, what our parents want for us and how we decide on our own paths. One of Khong’s characters observes: “Aren’t we lucky? Our DNA encodes innumerable people and yet it’s you and I who are here.” — Kerri Miller | MPR News
Mystery character of the month: The Cowardly Lion | 