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Gently, Han pulls the strings of each
family member, moving them further
from one another, to reveal the cracks in
the unit. These fissures do not appear too
wide to overcome, until a series of mis-
understandings threatens to implode the
Chengs’ delicate stability.
To describe the event that causes
things to unravel would do a disservice
to Han’s expert pacing. Throughout
Nights When Nothing Happened, Han
lingers in stillness, underlining moments
of unease and sadness. While Patty
watches her husband and children
interact, whether they’re passing each
other in the hallway or keeping quiet at
dinner, she’s forced to ask herself what
the silence means. In delivering these
small but crushing observations, Han
continuously asks if Patty’s and Liang’s
sacrifices were worth it.
The biggest misunderstanding of all,
which occurs at a party celebrating the
most all-American of holidays, Thanks-
giving, blows up the Chengs’ status in their
community. The family is forced to regain
the trust of those around them—trust they
never should have lost—all while learning
to afford one another the same. WHen Jack cHeng Was a baby, His
parents Patty and Liang moved from China
to Texas, and left him with his grandpar-
ents in Tianjin for six years. Patty, an engi-
neer, and Liang, a photographer, wanted to
be financially secure enough to raise Jack
and, later, his little sister Annabel, in the
U.S. In Simon Han’s searing debut novel,
Nights When Nothing Happened, Jack is
now a sixth-grader in Plano, Texas. His
parents chose the Dallas suburb because of
its low crime rates and good schools. But
as Jack enters middle school and his fam-
ily inches closer to achieving the Ameri-
can Dream, Han asks a timeless yet urgent
question: Is it possible to feel truly safe in a
place that wasn’t made for you?
Han works toward an answer by mov-
ing between the perspectives of the
Chengs as they go about their daily lives:
stuck in traffic, sitting in a classroom,
playing on the monkey bars. Jack’s voice
is the most affecting. The time apart
from his parents in his formative years
has left him untrusting, particularly of
his father. Nights are long and restless
for the 11-year-old, who feels protective
toward 5-year-old Annabel. She’s been
sleepwalking—a lot.REVIEW
Lonely together at home
By Annabel GuttermanREVIEW
Escape to
Brooklyn
It’s the start of the school
year in the affluent Brooklyn
neighborhood of Cobble Hill,
and new school nurse Peaches
couldn’t be more excited. In
a letter sent home to parents
warning of a growing lice
outbreak, she begins with
plenty of pep: “Welcome back,
PS 919 peeps!”
But the lice outbreak is just
one of many colorful snafus
in Cecily von Ziegesar’s
delightful novel Cobble Hill.
Von Ziegesar, author of the
Gossip Girl series, follows
four families as they navigate
their moneyed bubbles.
Though things intensify when
a neighborhood party gets out
of hand, the joy of the novel
comes from von Ziegesar’s
absurd and vivid descriptions
of these characters’ lives.
One resident has a warehouse
filled with prosthetic limbs;
another stays in bed all day
with no remorse while her
husband takes care of their
son. New to town, a novelist
named Roy helps ground
the story as he makes witty
observations on the people of
Cobble Hill.
The characters are self-
aware and snarky, and their
crises, beneath the glitz and
pettiness, are relatable.
Most surround parenthood,
ambition and community.
But von Ziegesar knows the
injection of absurd playground
drama, designer clothes and
brownstone tours is what
makes them so much fun to
read about. —A.G.
Is it
possible
to feel
truly
safe in a
place that
wasn’t
made for
you?Han was born
in Tianjin,
China, and
raised in
Texas