This novel of a young Samoan-American's search for authenticity is "a rollercoaster ride inside the haunted house of American multi-cultural sin and shame" (Sherman Alexie).
The twenty-eight-year-old mixed-race son of a Samoan immigrant, Paul Tusifale is desperate to find his place in an American culture that barely acknowledges his existence. Within the Silicon Valley landscape of grass-roots activists and dotcom headquarters, where the plight of migrant workers is ever-present, Paul drifts on and off the radar.
An unemployed drifter who defiantly—even violently—defends those in need, Paul soon discovers that life as an urban Robin Hood will never provide the answers he seeks. So he decides to try the straight-and-narrow: getting a job, obeying the law, and reconnecting with his family. Along the way, Paul moves through the lives of sinister old friends, suburban cranksters, and septuagenarian swingers.
A dynamic addition to America's diverse literature of the outsider, What We Are brings to life the pull of a departed father's homeland, the anger of class divisions, the noise of the evening news, and the pathos of the disengaged.
"Peter Nathaniel Malae is the real deal. He's like a young Nelson Algren or Richard Wright, one of those writers who can hit with both hands." —Russell Banks