Laila Lalami & The Other Americans

On episode 21 of My American Meltingpot, listen in on my conversation with author, Laila Lalami. Laila is the author of the book, The Other Americans, our fall book club pick in the My American Meltingpot book club. She is also the author of three other award-winning novels including, The Moor’s Account and Secret Son. A native of Morocco, Laila is a professor of creative writing at the University of California Riverside. 

The Other Americans begins with the mysterious death of a Moroccan immigrant, but is so much more than a murder mystery or a thriller. A perfect fit for the MAMP book club, The Other Americans is a rumination on family, belonging, love and who gets to call America home. It is so good, and in this episode we get to hear what inspired Laila to write the book, how she got in the headspace of the rainbow coalition of characters that narrate the story, and why she had to decolonize her own language in order to find her true writing voice.  

For the full show notes, with links to the resources mentioned in the episode, please visit the My American Meltingpot blog.