Journalist and short-story writer Maggie Tiojakin crafts her first novel featuring an Indonesian young man who writes his own version of American dream.

Sharing the title of a F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story, Winter Dreams is a coming-of-age tale surrounding Nicky Rompa, whose life is torn apart by an abusive father and his parents’ divorce. Finding it hard to accept his mother’s marriage to a new man while constantly in danger when living with his father, he is forced to quit his studies and live with his aunt’s family in Boston.

The young man, in his early 20s, finds a new home surrounded by new friends, while striving to understand his own identity.

The city and a clandestine love encourage him to take life as more than mere survival. Despite working semi-skilled jobs as an illegal immigrant, he dares to dream of becoming a writer.

Tiojakin un...