"A bewitching and highly approachable novel on what it's like to be an undocumented American . . . [and] what we all must hide in order to survive." — The San Diego Union-Tribune A Recommended Book From: USA Today * The Chicago Tribune * Book Riot * Refinery twenty-nine * InStyle * The Minneapolis Star-Tribune * Publishers Weekly * Baltimore Outloud * Omnivoracious * Lambda Literary * Goodreads * Lit Hub * The Millions WINNER OF THE NEW AMERICAN VOICES AWARD Excel spends his days trying to seem like an unremarkable American teenager, but he knows that his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online. The old man they live with is not his grandfather, but Maxima's lifelong martial arts trainer. And years ago, on Excel's tenth birthday, Maxima revealed a secret that he must keep forever. "We are 'TNT'—tago ng tago," she told him, "hiding and hiding." Excel is undocumented—and one accidental slip could uproot his entire life. Casting aside the paranoia and secrecy of his childhood, Excel takes a leap, joining his girlfriend on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello City. Populated by drifters, old hippies, and washed-up techies—and existing outside the normal constructs of American society—Hello City offers Excel a chance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider? "Tenorio is a gifted, expressive writer about the Filipino American diaspora." — USA Today