This month’s book is Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (pronounced “ing”). The novel is a work of fiction and is a perfect example of why family therapy exists. Celeste Ng is a master at creating contexts where the characters tragically misunderstand each other. Everything I Never Told You is a beautiful story to illustrate that if the family members and other characters in the book had been able to better communicate with each other, the circumstances would have ended up much differently.
The book is engaging from the very first sentences: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” The story centers around the Lee family and how the remaining family members attempt to reconstruct the story of what happened to their daughter/sister, why it happened, and how their own actions might have contributed to the situation. Before Lydia’s death, the characters are only able to see their own context and their own pain.
As Ng artfully weaves each character’s individual experience together with the others, it becomes clear as day (at least to this family therapist) how straightforward communication and curiosity about others’ thoughts and experiences build strong and happy relationships.
If you like this book, you can also check out her more recent novel called Little Fires Everywhere.