Nerdette Book Club: Angie Kim on ‘Happiness Falls’
Happy To Be Here
Greta Johnsen
4.8 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2023
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
Our selection this month is Angie Kim’s sophomore novel, 'Happiness Falls.' It’s narrated by Mia, a whip smart college student who moves back under her parents’ roof during the early days of COVID. This isn’t a pandemic novel, though, as much as lockdown is used as a device to bring everyone together and move the plot forward.
One day, Mia’s younger brother Eugene, a teenager with autism who doesn’t speak, shows up at home after a walk without his dad, Adam. No one knows where Adam went, and no one can believe he’d desert his family. As the family investigates, they learn Adam was keeping a number of secrets, some of which have astounding repercussions for everyone.
We talk to the author about writing a propulsive plot that also deals with big ideas, like disability, ableism, and the immigrant experience. Read along with us and send a voice memo with your thoughts to NerdettePodcast@gmail.com! We’ll be back the last Tuesday of the month for a spoiler-filled conversation with two guest readers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Education this week is a weekly newsletter for parents navigating schools |
| 0:04.4 | in Chicago and the suburbs from reporters at WBEZ and the Chicago Sun Times. |
| 0:09.6 | Sign up now just in time for back to school at WBEZ.org slash education news. |
| 0:20.0 | From WBEZ Chicago, I'm Greta Johnson and this is the Nerd Up Book Club. |
| 0:24.5 | It's just like a regular book club except sometimes the author stops by. |
| 0:28.8 | I am so excited to tell you about our September pick. |
| 0:32.1 | It is Angie Kim's second novel, Happiness Falls, which is by far one of my favorite books |
| 0:38.0 | from the year. It takes place during the social distancing days of the pandemic, |
| 0:42.5 | but it is not a quote unquote COVID novel. Instead, the fact that everyone in |
| 0:46.8 | stuck at home is kind of just the perfect equation for propelling the action of the story. |
| 0:52.4 | It is told from the point of view of Mia, who's home from college during lockdown, |
| 0:56.8 | back under the same roof with her twin brother John and their younger brother Eugene, |
| 1:00.7 | who has autism and is nonverbal. And one day Eugene comes home early from a hike in a nearby |
| 1:07.7 | park without his dad. Adam is gone and it's up to the family to figure out what happened. |
| 1:13.2 | They are utterly convinced that he wouldn't abandon them, but he was also definitely |
| 1:18.0 | keeping some secrets of his own. This is a novel with a mystery at its core of it explores |
| 1:23.8 | themes also around ableism and cultural identity. And if you can ever really truly be happy, |
| 1:30.5 | that's all I'm going to say for now since this is a spoiler-free conversation. Angie, |
| 1:34.8 | welcome back to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Greta. As you were doing the intro, |
| 1:41.4 | we're staring at each other on Zoom. And I was just beaming and just trying to keep from screaming |
| 1:50.5 | out loud how excited I am. Well, I am thrilled to have you. Thank you so much for having me. |
| 1:57.3 | Let's do it. So yeah, you are covering so much ground in this book. I'd love to know kind of which |
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