Stay True: Tracce di un’amicizia (Real(ize))

One of the The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century<BR><BR>Winner of the Pulitzer Prize<BR><BR>Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award<BR><BR>New York Times Bestseller<BR><BR><BR>“Quietly wrenching…To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice…This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life.” <BR>— The New York Times<BR><BR>“[A] luminous and tender-hearted story. . . Stay True is a nuanced and beautiful evocation of young adulthood in all its sloppy, exuberant glory.” <BR>— The Wall Street Journal<BR><BR>“An evolutionary step for Asian American literature.” <BR>— New York Magazine<BR><BR><BR>In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.<BR><BR>But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.<BR><BR>Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Memoir<BR>One of The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century<BR><BR>A deeply moving memoir about growing up in the 90s, written in the wake of the senseless killing of a beloved friend.<BR><BR>'A quiet, occasionally hilarious, ultimately devastating book . . . the most moving and memorable piece of autobiography I read this year.' - The Independent, 'The Ten Best Books of the Year'<BR><BR>'A powerful and beautifully written meditation on guilt, memory and male friendship' - The Guardian, 'Best Books of the Year'<BR><BR>When Hua Hsu first meets Ken in a Berkeley college dorm room, he hates him. A frat boy with terrible taste in music. For Hua, who makes zines and haunts indie record shops, Ken represents the mainstream. The only thing Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, and Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the US for generations, have in common is that American culture doesn't seem to have a place for either of them.<BR><BR>But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.<BR><BR>Capturing a coming-of-age cut short, and a portrait of a beautiful friendship, Stay True is an intimate memoir about growing up and moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.<BR><BR>'One of the best nonfiction books about friendship ever, right up there with Patti Smith's Just Kids' - The Atlantic

Es ist das Jahr 1995, Hua Hsu ist achtzehn und sucht seinen Platz, seine Leute. 'Ich wollte den Eindruck vermitteln, dass ich mich mit meiner Stimme wohl fühlte.' Er ist stolz darauf, gegen den Strom zu schwimmen. Er gibt Zines heraus, durchstöbert die Plattenläden der Bay Area, erstellt Mixtapes, kauft seine Kleider aus zweiter Hand. Als er Ken zum ersten Mal trifft, findet er alles an ihm öde. Ken mag Abercrombie &Fitch, Pearl Jam, ist in einer Studentenverbindung, hat eine 'konventionell attraktive' Freundin, geht gerne aus, hat gute Manieren. Alles so fürchterlich Mainstream. Die beiden haben auch ganz unterschiedliche familiäre Hintergründe, obwohl sie beide als Asian-American gelesen werden. Huas Eltern kamen fürs Studium aus Taiwan, während Kens japanisch-amerikanische Familie schon seit Generationen in den USA lebt und sich Ken, aus Huas Sicht, längst nahtlos in die amerikanische Kultur eingegliedert hat. Trotz allem werden Hua und Ken Freunde. Eine Freundschaft, die auf langen Fahrten entlang der kalifornischen Küste und bei nächtlichen Gesprächen auf Raucherbalkonen stetig wächst. 'Eine neue Schachtel Zigaretten, noch einmal zwanzig Gespräche.' Und dann ist Ken plötzlich nicht mehr da, wird unerwartet und sinnlos Opfer eines Verbrechens, nicht einmal drei Jahre nach dem Tag, an dem sie sich zum ersten Mal trafen. Entschlossen, die Erinnerungen an einen seiner engsten Freunde zu bewahren, beginnt Hua zu schreiben, denn er weiß nun: 'Zu sich selbst zu finden, gelingt nicht in einem Vakuum.' Stay True ist ein bestärkendes Memoir über das Erwachsenwerden, eine Nachruf auf die Jugend, diese Suche nach Sinn und Zugehörigkeit, und ein Zeugnis großzügigster Freundschaft.

One of the The New York Times’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century<BR><BR>Winner of the Pulitzer Prize<BR><BR>Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award<BR><BR>New York Times Bestseller<BR><BR><BR>“Quietly wrenching…To say that this book is about grief or coming-of-age doesn’t quite do it justice…This is a memoir that gathers power through accretion—all those moments and gestures that constitute experience, the bits and pieces that coalesce into a life.” <BR>— The New York Times<BR><BR>“[A] luminous and tender-hearted story. . . Stay True is a nuanced and beautiful evocation of young adulthood in all its sloppy, exuberant glory.” <BR>— The Wall Street Journal<BR><BR>“An evolutionary step for Asian American literature.” <BR>— New York Magazine<BR><BR><BR>In the eyes of eighteen-year-old Hua Hsu, the problem with Ken—with his passion for Dave Matthews, Abercrombie & Fitch, and his fraternity—is that he is exactly like everyone else. Ken, whose Japanese American family has been in the United States for generations, is mainstream; for Hua, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, who makes ’zines and haunts Bay Area record shops, Ken represents all that he defines himself in opposition to. The only thing Hua and Ken have in common is that, however they engage with it, American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them.<BR><BR>But despite his first impressions, Hua and Ken become friends, a friendship built on late-night conversations over cigarettes, long drives along the California coast, and the successes and humiliations of everyday college life. And then violently, senselessly, Ken is gone, killed in a carjacking, not even three years after the day they first meet.<BR><BR>Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. Stay True is the book he’s been working on ever since. A coming-of-age story that details both the ordinary and extraordinary, Stay True is a bracing memoir about growing up, and about moving through the world in search of meaning and belonging.