What We Are

A blazing and authentic new literary voice, Peter Nathaniel Malae — a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Literary Award — has written a bold debut novel — a raw and powerful, bullet-fast story that looks at contemporary America through the eyes of one disillusioned son. What We Are follows twenty-eight-year-old Samoan-American Paul Tusifale as he strives to find his place in a culture that barely acknowledges his existence. Within a landscape of sprawling freeways and dotcom headquarters, where the plight of migrant workers is ever-present, Paul drifts on and off the radar in San Jose, California, fighting to define himself within a system that has no easy or predetermined place for him. At first Paul tries to live outside society, an unemployed drifter who takes a personal interest in defiantly — even violently — defending those in need. But when life as an urban Robin Hood fails to provide the answers he seeks, Paul takes a chance on the straight-and-narrow: living in the power structure, getting a job, obeying the law, and seeking to reconnect with his family. Along the way, Paul moves through the lives of sinister old friends, suburban cranksters, and septuagenarian swingers, and battles to find the wisdom and faith he desperately needs, whether through adhering to tradition, or casting it aside. A dynamic addition to America's diverse literature of the outsider, What We Are establishes Malae as an energetically gifted writer, whose muscular prose brings to life the pull of a departed father's homeland, the anger of class divisions, the noise of the evening news, and, in the end, beautifully renders the pathos of the disengaged.

"Malae's debut novel (after the collection Teach the Free Man) is a high energy rant narrated by a half-Samoan/half-white drifter trying to survive in a world bent on marginalizing seekers of truth and integrity. Malae's antihero, Paul Tusifale, an ex-con and poet, wanders the dark corners of Silicon Valley like a corrosive Midas, ruining everything he comes in contact with, whether it's a civil rights march or a wealthy patron's poetry fellowship. Paul's voice is filled with anger and intelligence, and though his rants can come off preachy byproducts of his moral superiority and self-imposed martyrdom, when he backs away from smart-ass comments, superior glares, and Shakespearean quotes, his toughness transforms into a heartbreaking shield against futility, and he becomes a man with an idea on how to save us all. The novel's at its strongest during these moments, bearing a message that in the face of the madness of the modern world, the most important thing is to know yourself and to hold onto that at whatever cost. It's got rough patches, but the voice is gold." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"In this decidedly masculine novel...the language is often explicit and the protagonist young, disaffected, and easily provoked. Readers who enjoy other contemporary fiction authors popular with men...should definitely try Malae." Library Journal

"An autobiographical and deeply felt portrait of an outsider who is appalled by much of what he sees around him.... Paul and his observations about contemporary culture are compelling." Booklist

"There are moments of manic energy in the prose, cascades of association flowing down the page. But there's no plot, nor any dramatic tension.... The narrator's brio is both the strength and the weakness of What We Are."Oregonian

"A rollercoaster ride inside the haunted house of American multicultural sin and shame. Violent and smart and funny. I am excited by this new writer." Sherman Alexie

"[What We Are] gives flesh and voice to a 'Me Generation' poet of mixed heritage and tortured outlook." New York Times Book Review

"Malae’s writing is palpably masculine...as if you can see the muscles bulging in his arms as he writes." San Francisco Chronicle

A blazing and authentic new literary voice, Malae — a finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Literary Award — has written a bold debut novel. What We Are tells a raw and powerful, bullet-fast story that looks at contemporary America through the eyes of one disillusioned son.

Peter Nathaniel Malae is the author of the story collection, Teach the Free Man, a finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and a notable book selection by the Story Prize. Winner of the San Francisco Foundation/Intersection for the Arts Joseph Henry Jackson Award, Malae is a former Steinbeck, MacDowell, and Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellow. This is his first novel.