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.
