If you've heard me talk about Chang-rae Lee's book, "The Surrendered," you'll know I'm simply enamored of his work. "Native Speaker" is his debut novel and I was excited to read it because it deals with the immigrant experience: about being American, but nevertheless a perpetual outsider, from two worlds and belonging to neither. It's the story of a Korean-American, whose marriage with his white wife is on shaky ground, while his career leads him into dangerous paths that force him to choose loyalties between the America he longs for and the Korea in his blood.

In terms of navigating a world of conflicted identity, this book speaks more cogently than any other I have read. Lee's writing is, as ever, beautiful and haunting, with wonderful lines like: "Sometimes you have to meet the parents to figure out what someone really looks like" and "I want to call the simple Korean back to him the way I once could when I was Peter's age, our comely language of distance and bows, by which real secrets may be slowly courted, slowly unveiled." I have a tendency to highlight beautifully written sentences and my copy of this book is covered in the marks of my pen.

While it doesn't quite sink right into your gut and marrow the way "The Surrendered" does - which, I think, shows the trajectory of his growth as an author - "Native Speaker" is a good read to take slowly, in quiet moments. For anyone who too has felt themselves caught in the doorway, able to see both sides, but not quite enter, I think this book will resonate with you.