Everybody Says It's Everything

In this unforgettable novel from the award-winning author of Brass, twins growing up in the United States in the nineties unravel larger truths about identity and sibling bonds when one of them gets wrapped up in the war in Kosovo.

“A glowing work of art . . . Aliu has used her many talents to craft a wonderful, vibrant, must-read book.”—Jason Mott, National Book Award–winning author of Hell of a Book

Raised in Connecticut, adopted twins Drita and Petrit (aka Pete) had no connection to their Albanian heritage. Their lives were all about Barbie dolls, the mall, and roller skating at the local rink. Although they were inseparable during their childhood, their paths diverged once they became teenagers: Drita was a good girl with good manners who was going to attend a good college; Pete was a bad boy going nowhere fast. Even their twinhood was not enough to keep them together.

Fast-forward to their twenties. Drita has given up on her dreams for the future, abandoning her graduate studies to move back home and take care of their mother. She hasn’t heard from Pete in three years when his girlfriend and their son unexpectedly show up without him and in need of help. Realizing that Pete’s child may offer the siblings a second chance at being family, Drita becomes determined to find her brother. But what she ends up discovering—about their connection to their Albanian roots, the war in Kosovo, and the story of their adoption—will surprise everyone, and become what brings them together, or tears them apart for good.

In Everybody Says It’s Everything, critically acclaimed author Xhenet Aliu tells the story of a family both fractured and foundering, desperate to connect with the other and the world at large, but not knowing how.