Everything We Never Had

Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
Longlisted for the National Book Award
Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Fiction Award

From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.

Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should've never left the Philippines.

Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt's restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He's going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.

Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can't control him. However, when a missed assignment on "ancestral history" sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.

Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo's daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.

Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it's up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.

Author: Randy Ribay
Publisher: Kokila
Published: 08/27/2024
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.52h x 5.82w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780593461419
Audience: Young Adult

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.3
Point Value: 8
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 552933 / Everything We Never Had


Award: Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature - Winner


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/20/2024
Kirkus Reviews 07/01/2024
Booklist 07/01/2024 pg. 76
School Library Journal 08/01/2024 pg. 100
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 09/01/2024
Horn Book Magazine 09/01/2024 pg. 85
Shelf Awareness 08/24/2024
Hornbook Guide to Children 07/01/2024 - Superior,Well Above Average

About the Author
Randy Ribay is a Filipino American author of young adult fiction. His novel Patron Saints of Nothing was a finalist for the National Book Award and the LA Times Book Prize. Randy was also a contributor to the Printz Award-winning anthology The Collectors, edited by A. S. King. His other works include An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, After the Shot Drops, and Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku. Born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest, Randy currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog.