*Winner of the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards UTS Glenda Adams Award for New Writing*

Middle-class,clever and white, Nick is a child of privilege while his best friend Andie isthe daughter of Indo-Chinese refugees. Despite their very differentbackgrounds, they share a conviction they can change the world for the better.

Atthe outset, Nick is pushing papers in a dead-end job while Andie is embarkingon a secular crusade against world poverty. This generates conflict with herwhite husband Benjamin, who feels that Australians should come first.Meanwhile, Andie's cousin, the teenage Tony is burdened by his parents'traumatic past and impossible expectations. To their dismay, he finds solace in radical faith.

S. L. Lim acutely captures the dreamsand  disaffections of a millennial generation.

RealDifferences is an emotionally resonant novelabout idealism, ethical ambition, and love,filled with unforgettable characters. It ultimately asks us the most important questionof all: What is our life for?

'The quiet writers are the most disturbing, theway they look at the world without flinching and report without surprise orjudgement. A witty and devastating debut.' - Peter Bishop

'Heartbreaking and unflinching, the novelexposes the growing, everyday fissures within contemporary life, the trauma ofwounds widened by insurmountable cultural divisions, and the relationships ofordinary people that mend or break under the pressures of private upheaval andfamilial histories.' - Cyril Wong, author of Let Me Tell You Something About That Night

'Real Differences is that rare and vital thing, a novelthat asks what it takes to live by an ambitious moral code. In portraying thestruggles, the self-doubt, the resentments of others, the disillusion and theecstatic certainty that such commitment can bring, it grapples with some of themost profound questions faced by anyone who wonders, What should I do with mylife?' - Larissa MacFarquhar, The New Yorker, author of StrangersDrowning: Impossible idealism, drastic choices, and theurge to help