--- product_id: 51086161 title: "Everything I Never Told You: 'a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense' O, the Oprah Magazine" price: "R543" currency: ZAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/51086161-everything-i-never-told-you-a-taut-tale-of-ever store_origin: ZA region: South Africa --- # 1970s authentic setting Award-winning bestseller Pulitzer-worthy storytelling Everything I Never Told You: 'a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense' O, the Oprah Magazine **Price:** R543 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 📖 Unlock the secrets families never tell — a must-read that everyone’s talking about! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Everything I Never Told You: 'a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense' O, the Oprah Magazine - **How much does it cost?** R543 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/51086161-everything-i-never-told-you-a-taut-tale-of-ever) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Deep Social Insight:** Explores race, identity, and parental expectations with unflinching honesty and emotional depth. - • **Authentic 1970s Vibe:** Immerse yourself in a richly detailed small-town Ohio setting that shapes every character’s struggle. - • **Literary Masterpiece:** A gripping, Pulitzer and Man Booker-worthy debut that redefines family drama. - • **Award-Winning Bestseller:** Ranked top 1,000 in multiple fiction categories with over 79,000 glowing reviews. - • **Timeless Emotional Impact:** A haunting, unforgettable story that sparks conversations about family, loss, and belonging. ## Overview Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng’s acclaimed debut novel, set in 1970s Ohio, exploring the tragic death of Lydia Lee and the complex dynamics of a mixed-race family. Combining literary finesse with a poignant examination of race, identity, and parental pressure, this award-winning bestseller has captivated over 79,000 readers and earned top rankings across cultural heritage, psychological, and women’s literary fiction categories. ## Description ' There is much here that might impress Pulitzer and Man Booker judges ...Ng brilliantly depicts the destruction that parents can inflict on their children and on each other' Mark Lawson, Guardian 'This intriguing tale of unhappy families will have you gripped from the opening line . . . No wonder it beat Hilary Mantel and Stephen King to win desertcart's book of the year ' Stylist Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue - in Marilyn's case that her daughter become a doctor rather than a homemaker, in James's case that Lydia be popular at school, a girl with a busy social life and the centre of every party. But Lydia is under pressures that have nothing to do with growing up in 1970s small town Ohio. Her father is an American born of first-generation Chinese immigrants, and his ethnicity, and hers, make them conspicuous in any setting. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt and sets out on a reckless path that may destroy his marriage. Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to make someone accountable, no matter what the cost. Lydia's older brother, Nathan, is convinced that local bad boy Jack is somehow involved. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who observes far more than anyone realises and who may be the only one who knows what really happened. And if you loved Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere , pre-order Celeste Ng's brilliant new novel, Our Missing Hearts , now What readers are saying: 'Devastating...A truly tragic but devastatingly well written book' 'Ng is a true craftsman. I implore you to read this. Also my favourite ending of a novel so far this year' 'This is the best book I have read this year' 'Really enjoyed this book, deeply moving, sad and thought provoking' Review: Outstanding family drama - Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng's first novel, and it's an exceptionally accomplished one. Set in 1970s Ohio and beginning with the disappearance and death of Lydia, the teenage middle child in the mixed race Lee family, Everything I Never Told You is a delicately crafted story of the expectations and regrets of parents and children, about being different and wanting to fit in, and about fitting in and wanting to be different. The story is partly told in flashback and partly in the present during the aftermath of Lydia's death, from the points of view of each family member, including Lydia herself. Lydia, it's acknowledged by her siblings Nathan and Hannah, is their parents' favourite, and as such, has become a sort of conduit through which both her father and mother are determined to see their own regrets and mistakes put right. It's essential for James, her Chinese-American father, that she will fit in, have friends, be accepted socially in a way he never has been. Marilyn, her white mother - disowned by her own mother in turn for choosing a Chinese husband - is desperate for Lydia to fulfil her own thwarted dreams of becoming a doctor, rejecting the path of marriage and children that is still traditional in the novel's 1970s setting. I have seen Everything I Never Told You described as a literary thriller, but I wouldn't really classify it as that. It's true that Lydia was last seen before her mysterious disappearance with Jack Wolff, well-known as the local bad boy, and that Nathan is convinced this must be significant, but the actual explanation of Lydia's death is secondary to the sensitively-written exploration of the Lee family's troubled states of mind. Objects acquire deep significance, symbolising the family's unspoken resentments and anxieties: an all-American Betty Crocker Cookbook, for instance, or a broken locket. Hannah's room is full of small belongings stolen and hidden from the rest of the family, as if she - almost entirely ignored - has become the curator of their repressed concerns. Lydia's shelves are full of diaries, and yet when they are opened in the days following her death, they prove to be completely blank. Not only can the Lee family not be open with each each other, it seems that they can't even bear to be honest with themselves. Everything I Never Told You is an understated, quiet sort of novel, primarily introspective. Tensions are buried and resentment unexpressed - none of the Lees ever seem able to confront each other, and neither do they ever seem to confront anyone for the constant racism they face, at school, at work, on holiday. I found this book almost painfully sad at times - yet there is, as it draws to a conclusion, a sense of hope for the future that comes as something of a relief. Review: The disintegration of an mixed-race family following the death of their 16 yr old daughter. - Celeste Ng’s impressive debut novel is an absorbing and emotionally resonant study on the fragility of family life, the burden of expectation and the suffocating pressure when a child is forced to inherit their parents’ dreams. Well-observed and refreshing unsentimental, Ng’s poignant take on one families disintegration and turmoil following the death of their favoured child is unflinchingly honest and never shies away from confronting the painful and enunciating the more unpalatable topic of race and gender discrimination. The story is as much one of the mysterious circumstances surrounding sixteen-year-old Lydia Lee’s death as it is about the meeting and marriage of Marilyn Walker, a studious white Virginian with ambitions of being a doctor and James Lee a first-generation Chinese-American graduate student hoping to secure a position amongst the teaching staff of his alma mater, Harvard. The pivotal moment takes place within the opening pages and what follow is an unravelling of the unspoken truths, insecurities and parental expectations as the narrative weaves back and forth in time to chronicle the Lee’s marriage and their individual insecurities. Set in 1977 in the tiny college town of Middlewood in Northwest Ohio and evoking the small-mindedness of a community where mixed-race marriages and their offspring are still a novelty and never expected to anything, the scrutiny on the family is intense. For academically gifted Marilyn whose aspirations to be a doctor gives way to domesticity and motherhood, her dismay at her unfulfilled potential has never quite receded. Having reluctantly come to terms with her career failure after a self-enforced exile from her family, her eventual return home sees Lydia make a silent promise to please her mother and ensure she never has a reason to leave again. Meanwhile for James who longs to fit in and eschew his deep-rooted fears of feelings like an outcast or imposter that have blighted him from junior school to graduate student his biggest wish is for his children and family to be seen as equal and no longer starred at or marked out by their parentage. From popularity amongst their peers to reaching lofty academic heights, being seen as an all American success story is his greatest desire. The marital pact of the Lee’s to look to the future and forget the struggles they have each overcome is admirable, but with neither having shared their deepest emotions and the baggage of their past, the impact on their children is quite profound with Nath observing first-hand his sister’s stoicism. Crumbling under the weight of her parents expectations and her mothers rigorous study schedule to allow Lydia to fulfil her own ambition of becoming a doctor, only brother Nath knows of her loneliness, lack of friends and misery. As the circumstances of Lydia’s death remain shrouded in doubt and Marilyn struggles to accept the possibility of suicide, the family quickly unravels with bitterness and secrets on all sides. Forcing both Marilyn and James to recognise how they have failed their daughter and Nath to accept his guilt at being grateful to have escaped the pressures on Lydia, the novel is a cathartic exploration of a family in turmoil. But is there anyway past the death of Lydia for the devastated Lee family? A haunting portrait of the complexities of family life and the decisive moment that brings it all crashing down for a mixed-race family in small town Northwest Ohio in the late 1970s. Not only does the period setting make the prejudice surrounding the interracial relationship of Marilyn and James far more distinct but the pre mobile phone/social media advent is a necessity in enabling Celeste Ng to convey a credible snapshot of Lydia’s loneliness and social isolation. ## Features - LITTLE BROWN BOOKS GROUP - It is durable and long lasting - It ensures you get the best usage for a longer period ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 59,661 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 454 in Cultural Heritage Fiction 1,047 in Psychological Fiction (Books) 1,668 in Women's Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.1 out of 5 stars 79,172 Reviews | ## Images ![Everything I Never Told You: 'a taut tale of ever deepening and quickening suspense' O, the Oprah Magazine - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/816SaHQ8k9L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Outstanding family drama *by J***D on 7 December 2014* Everything I Never Told You is Celeste Ng's first novel, and it's an exceptionally accomplished one. Set in 1970s Ohio and beginning with the disappearance and death of Lydia, the teenage middle child in the mixed race Lee family, Everything I Never Told You is a delicately crafted story of the expectations and regrets of parents and children, about being different and wanting to fit in, and about fitting in and wanting to be different. The story is partly told in flashback and partly in the present during the aftermath of Lydia's death, from the points of view of each family member, including Lydia herself. Lydia, it's acknowledged by her siblings Nathan and Hannah, is their parents' favourite, and as such, has become a sort of conduit through which both her father and mother are determined to see their own regrets and mistakes put right. It's essential for James, her Chinese-American father, that she will fit in, have friends, be accepted socially in a way he never has been. Marilyn, her white mother - disowned by her own mother in turn for choosing a Chinese husband - is desperate for Lydia to fulfil her own thwarted dreams of becoming a doctor, rejecting the path of marriage and children that is still traditional in the novel's 1970s setting. I have seen Everything I Never Told You described as a literary thriller, but I wouldn't really classify it as that. It's true that Lydia was last seen before her mysterious disappearance with Jack Wolff, well-known as the local bad boy, and that Nathan is convinced this must be significant, but the actual explanation of Lydia's death is secondary to the sensitively-written exploration of the Lee family's troubled states of mind. Objects acquire deep significance, symbolising the family's unspoken resentments and anxieties: an all-American Betty Crocker Cookbook, for instance, or a broken locket. Hannah's room is full of small belongings stolen and hidden from the rest of the family, as if she - almost entirely ignored - has become the curator of their repressed concerns. Lydia's shelves are full of diaries, and yet when they are opened in the days following her death, they prove to be completely blank. Not only can the Lee family not be open with each each other, it seems that they can't even bear to be honest with themselves. Everything I Never Told You is an understated, quiet sort of novel, primarily introspective. Tensions are buried and resentment unexpressed - none of the Lees ever seem able to confront each other, and neither do they ever seem to confront anyone for the constant racism they face, at school, at work, on holiday. I found this book almost painfully sad at times - yet there is, as it draws to a conclusion, a sense of hope for the future that comes as something of a relief. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The disintegration of an mixed-race family following the death of their 16 yr old daughter. *by R***D on 24 November 2018* Celeste Ng’s impressive debut novel is an absorbing and emotionally resonant study on the fragility of family life, the burden of expectation and the suffocating pressure when a child is forced to inherit their parents’ dreams. Well-observed and refreshing unsentimental, Ng’s poignant take on one families disintegration and turmoil following the death of their favoured child is unflinchingly honest and never shies away from confronting the painful and enunciating the more unpalatable topic of race and gender discrimination. The story is as much one of the mysterious circumstances surrounding sixteen-year-old Lydia Lee’s death as it is about the meeting and marriage of Marilyn Walker, a studious white Virginian with ambitions of being a doctor and James Lee a first-generation Chinese-American graduate student hoping to secure a position amongst the teaching staff of his alma mater, Harvard. The pivotal moment takes place within the opening pages and what follow is an unravelling of the unspoken truths, insecurities and parental expectations as the narrative weaves back and forth in time to chronicle the Lee’s marriage and their individual insecurities. Set in 1977 in the tiny college town of Middlewood in Northwest Ohio and evoking the small-mindedness of a community where mixed-race marriages and their offspring are still a novelty and never expected to anything, the scrutiny on the family is intense. For academically gifted Marilyn whose aspirations to be a doctor gives way to domesticity and motherhood, her dismay at her unfulfilled potential has never quite receded. Having reluctantly come to terms with her career failure after a self-enforced exile from her family, her eventual return home sees Lydia make a silent promise to please her mother and ensure she never has a reason to leave again. Meanwhile for James who longs to fit in and eschew his deep-rooted fears of feelings like an outcast or imposter that have blighted him from junior school to graduate student his biggest wish is for his children and family to be seen as equal and no longer starred at or marked out by their parentage. From popularity amongst their peers to reaching lofty academic heights, being seen as an all American success story is his greatest desire. The marital pact of the Lee’s to look to the future and forget the struggles they have each overcome is admirable, but with neither having shared their deepest emotions and the baggage of their past, the impact on their children is quite profound with Nath observing first-hand his sister’s stoicism. Crumbling under the weight of her parents expectations and her mothers rigorous study schedule to allow Lydia to fulfil her own ambition of becoming a doctor, only brother Nath knows of her loneliness, lack of friends and misery. As the circumstances of Lydia’s death remain shrouded in doubt and Marilyn struggles to accept the possibility of suicide, the family quickly unravels with bitterness and secrets on all sides. Forcing both Marilyn and James to recognise how they have failed their daughter and Nath to accept his guilt at being grateful to have escaped the pressures on Lydia, the novel is a cathartic exploration of a family in turmoil. But is there anyway past the death of Lydia for the devastated Lee family? A haunting portrait of the complexities of family life and the decisive moment that brings it all crashing down for a mixed-race family in small town Northwest Ohio in the late 1970s. Not only does the period setting make the prejudice surrounding the interracial relationship of Marilyn and James far more distinct but the pre mobile phone/social media advent is a necessity in enabling Celeste Ng to convey a credible snapshot of Lydia’s loneliness and social isolation. ### ⭐⭐⭐ Everything I Never Told You *by S***B on 15 February 2020* We know right from the beginning of this story that sixteen-year-old Lydia Lee has died and, by the end of the story, we know how her death came about - but does the story in between explain fully Lydia’s journey from life to death? The mixed race daughter of a blonde American mother and a Chinese American father, Lydia, with her long, black hair and her unusual blue eyes, has never really fitted in with the other girls at her school (all of whom appear to be white Americans). Still suffering from her mother’s temporary abandonment of her when she was a small child, Lydia tries her best to be the daughter her mother wants her to be, especially when it comes to achieving good grades at school. But when Lydia’s grades begin to fall and she starts spending time with Jack Wolff, the local ‘heartthrob’, her life quietly begins to unravel. Her parents, meanwhile, with problems of their own, fail to see that Lydia is in difficulty, and when her body is discovered in the local lake, they each deal with the aftermath in ways that cause them even more problems and heartache. And then there are the Lees' two other children, Nath and Hannah, who have to try to navigate their way around the death of their sister and also the backlash of their parents’ grief. Set in the 1970s in small-town Ohio, this story of a Chinese-American family is one that looks at the difficulties encountered in a mixed-race marriage and of the problems experienced by the children of that marriage. It also looks at the the dangers of parents living their lives through their children and of wanting their offspring to achieve what they have been unable to achieve for themselves. As a debut novel, this is a good one, but I do feel that the proliferation of plaudits on the book’s cover (“This ghostly novel calls to mind ‘The Lovely Bones”; “A page-tuning literary thriller” etc.) leads the reader to expect something different to that which is actually delivered and I feel this is more of a story that looks at dysfunctional families, racial barriers, parental expectations and the need to belong, rather than a “page-turning literary thriller.” There is more I should like to discuss about this novel, for instance how could the parents, as two intelligent people, be so blind as to what was happening within their family? Or did they just prefer not to see what they didn’t feel capable of facing? However to discuss this further would risk revealing spoilers, so I shall just add that despite this book being not quite what I expected, parts of the story are beautifully written, if poignant to read, and reading this has made me interested in looking at the author’s second novel ‘Little Fires Everywhere’ which has been recommended to me. ## Frequently Bought Together - Everything I Never Told You - Little Fires Everywhere --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/51086161-everything-i-never-told-you-a-taut-tale-of-ever](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/51086161-everything-i-never-told-you-a-taut-tale-of-ever) --- *Product available on Desertcart South Africa* *Store origin: ZA* *Last updated: 2026-10-02*