Welcome to America

by Linda Bostroem Knausgard

Martin Aitken (Translator)

A family on the brink of disaster...

Ellen's stopped talking. She thinks she may have killed her dad. Her brother's barricaded himself in his room. Their mother, a successful actress, carries on as normal. We're a family of light! she insists. But darkness seeps in everywhere and in their separate worlds each of them longs for togetherness. 

Welcome to America is a scintillating portrait of a sensitive, strong-willed child in the throes of trauma, a family on the brink of implosion, and the love that threatens to tear them apart.

• ISBN13: 9781642860412
• Publish Date: 3 September 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: World Editions
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 160
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

Welcome to America follows an 11-year-old girl whose father has recently died. She feels responsible for his death and because of this has decided not to talk anymore. On top of her not talking anymore, her older brother has locked himself away in his room by nailing the door shut, and her mom is a broadway star just trying to keep the family together.

This family is dysfunctional but they weren't always this way. In the beginning they were a family who had hope, light, and promise but somewhere along the way things went wrong. While we do seem to partially find out why things went wrong we also never see it get resolved sadly. This is a book that has dark overtones while also being full of possibilities of what could happen if they can start communicating and working together as a family again. Maybe this family will have hope, light, and promise again.

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