Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Expatriates  By  cover art

The Expatriates

By: Janice Y. K. Lee
Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.25

Buy for $20.25

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Janice Y. K. Lee’s New York Times best-selling debut, The Piano Teacher, was called “immensely satisfying” by People, “intensely readable” by O, The Oprah Magazine, and “a rare and exquisite story” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Now, in her long-awaited new novel, Lee explores with devastating poignancy the emotions, identities, and relationships of three very different American women living in the same small expat community in Hong Kong.

Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past. Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage. Meanwhile, Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss. As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all. Atmospheric, moving, and utterly compelling, The Expatriates confirms Lee as an exceptional talent and one of our keenest observers of women’s inner lives.

©2016 Janice Y. K. Lee (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Raise a glass: The first great book-club novel of 2016 has arrived.” (USA Today, 4/4 stars)

“A female, funny Henry James in Asia, Janice Y. K. Lee is vividly good on the subject of Americans abroad.” (The New York Times Book Review)

Sex and the City meets Lost in Translation.” (The Skimm)

What listeners say about The Expatriates

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    118
  • 4 Stars
    138
  • 3 Stars
    84
  • 2 Stars
    14
  • 1 Stars
    18
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    147
  • 4 Stars
    99
  • 3 Stars
    61
  • 2 Stars
    12
  • 1 Stars
    16
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    102
  • 4 Stars
    118
  • 3 Stars
    79
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    20

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

You can be a jerk in a foreign country too

This is a book for women; 99% of men will not enjoy it.

If you are expecting a book about love, relationships, forgiveness, and redemption, then you will love this book. If you are looking for something about ex-pats and their lives and struggles with foreign cultures, this is not that book.

Having lived as an ex-pat for 14 years, both single and with my husband and adopted local kids, I expected to connect with this story, especially since I had lived in Taiwan and visited Hong Kong many times so I know the land, the people and the culture.

This book is much less about being ex-patriates than it is about social groups and gaps; dealing with infertility, tragedy, betrayal, and infidelity; being the victim or the cause of suffering. It is about mothers, motherhood, and women, solidarity among women.

It is written beautifully, and develops gradually into a whole. There is no reason for it to be set in Hong Kong, but then no reason not to either.

Three women, each struggling with her own burdens, then suffers another deeper blow. This is about how they handle this, how they view others and then themselves, grow stronger to cope with their lives, then learn about patience, forgiveness, acceptance, and redemption. Along the way, they learn about mothers and what "woman" means.

Incidental to the women's stories, are the three men and the ways in which they deal with the same events the women are dealing with. One of the men is a stand-up, supportive guy who actually hangs in there and helps. The other two go off on their own pity-parties and, by the end of the story, haven't learned to be men. There is still hope for them, but that would be later.

The story loses a star for me because of the disconnect with the title. The ex-pats didn't have to deal with anything they wouldn't have confronted back home. The Hong Kong-ness didn't matter to the story; they could or would have been the same jerks there as here. What I wanted more of was how being in a foreign country makes you feel as if your actions are invisible to the world and don't matter because no one back home sees you. I wanted more than the little bit there was of how the ex-pats interact with the locals. There were a couple, all negative, but this book wasn't really about that. This was just a regular-coming-of-age story even though the women were beyond teenage.

There are quite a few tidbits of wisdom here like, "you have let happiness happen." These and all the redemptive events happen quite late in the story, so it is a bit hard to slog along to get there. But it really is a beautiful story, with many points to ponder.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Engrossing

An engrossing portrait of women living abroad, without being a novel about living abroad-- the story could take place anywhere in the Western world.

It's about: Three women and how their lives intersect, and secrets, and all that stuff. Well done.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • TD
  • 01-30-16

modern story of women

The book was interesting. It made the world seem a smaller place. It was also refreshing to show the power of forgiveness and also that all woman are not spiteful. I really enjoyed the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Rough at first, but solid by the end

It was a little tough to get into the boom in the beginning but by the end the story really came together and it was wonderful. I enjoyed her first book and had been looking forward to this one. She didn't disappoint!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

The Charms and Challenges Of Life As An Expat

I love it when an author uses a geographical setting as the focal point of a story and in Janice Y.K. Lee's elegant second novel, Hong Kong certainly plays a central role.

For the expat American community featured in this novel, the former British colony has it all: a flourishing economy, a modern infrastructure, and a relative tolerant society, all set in a beautiful and exotic location.

This is a community full of overachievers, people that radiate success, affluence and wellness. Many of them have relocated to Hong Kong pursuing new career opportunities, at the same time most of them consider the place to serve only as a provisional home.

The Expatriates follows the lives of Mercy, Margaret and Hilary all of whom have relocated from America to Hong Kong at different times and under very different circumstances, but they also face similar struggles trying to fit it into a society that uses cultural norms that are unfamiliar and at times feel outright regressive.

"Hong Kong is so small" is an aphorism we hear from the expats again and again, which might strike you as odd considering they live in a place populated by 7+million people.

Whether is a conscious decision or not, inevitably these Americans find it easier to socialize with their own kind, this results in a "living in a fishbowl" lifestyle, a place where everyone knows everyone, privacy is a scarce commodity and secrets are hard to keep.

The lives of our three protagonists will overlap in unexpected ways and they'll find themselves entangled in a complicated web of lies and betrayal, but they'll also get a chance to forgive and start anew.

These women have lived for the most part in a bubble, they have enjoyed vacations to Bali, excursions by junk boats and relaxing parties at their country club, but The Expatriates underlines the fact that a life of privilege and adversity are not mutually exclusive and that ironically having such a sheltered existence if anything, might make it harder to recover from personal loss and hardship.

At the end, the stories of these women remind us how fragile life is and how our destinies can so radically changed in the blink of an eye.

I really enjoyed Ann Marie Lee's narration of this novel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

6 degrees of Separation

Would you consider the audio edition of The Expatriates to be better than the print version?

I really enjoyed the reader, and I thought she really added appropriate humor, sorrow and emotion to this book.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Mercy. Growing up is never easy, but she did a good job trying.

Which scene was your favorite?

I really enjoyed the ending.

If you could take any character from The Expatriates out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Margaret. I would want to be a cheerleader for her grief.

Any additional comments?

Spoiler Alert. I really thought that the boy that Hillary was adopting would turn out to be Margarets child. I really hoped that would happen. Really enjoyed the book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

depressing lives cause anxiety while reading this

The lives are depressing. Very Little if any joy. it causes anxiety and sadness while reading about the characters lives. I can't take anymore and must delete it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully descriptive

I love audiobooks and this one does not disappoint! It is filled with descriptive and easy to imagine characters that inhabit the Hong Kong world. You are immediately pulled onto the streets of Hong Kong and enveloped by the sights and sounds bustling all around! Hilary Margaret and Merci are very distinctly different and you wonder how their worlds are intertwined - this is where the author creates the complexities of these women that makes you want to learn more thus making them more meaningful to you - as a child I was once an expatriate and lived in Tachikawa Japan so I could clearly understand the struggles of an American in a new place for the first time!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

This is a story that draws you in almost immediately and then holds you right through to the end. While the characters are all pretty unlikeable, you know you are seeing them at their worst and that they are stuck in circumstances that would make anybody crazy, so you end up hanging on every word to find out how this is all going to pan out.

I’m surprised that some reviewers say it isn’t really about being an expat. As an expat myself, I think the book is very much about that. That was part of the point of the book—that life is life no matter where you live, but there are some very special aspects added to life when you live so far from home. It’s startling to me how very similar my experience has been, even though I’m not the wealthy kind.

The characters are relatable, their choices understandable -though we cringe while they make them. In the end, we see them making realistic adaptations with new maturity and wisdom. It’s a story of hope and that of understanding that life is a continual process rather than a continuous line.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Story kept me going

Narrator's enunciation bothered me through out. Story kept me listening but was happy to see the book end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful