A stylish and fast-paced debut novel follows Ophir—not her real name—as she reveals the story of her last ten years on the run around the world, in a confessional podcast that soon charms countless fans, even as she risks her anonymity and freedom.
Ophir isn’t her real name, but she likes it fine for now, and if she’s going to tell this story—the real story of her last ten years on the run—she’s going to do it on her own terms. This is what our narrator promises as she sets out to broadcast (with the help of a mysterious friend, from an undisclosed location) her tumultuous life as a fugitive. She’s forever estranged from her home and family in Singapore, where it all began with a petty crime that had spun out of hand.
Ophir entrances her listeners with a tale that crisscrosses from a Paris-themed hostess bar in bustling Tokyo, to a nondescript Chinese restaurant in London, to the snowed in mountains of Colorado, and beyond, as she dons a range of identities and sheds forged passports. As a middle class mixed-race woman, Ophir moves seamlessly across class lines and across continents. She keeps trying to hide, tries to find comfort in the arms of new lovers and in the company of her ill-begotten luxury goods—but she seems to attract trouble. She stumbles upon crime rings, illicit affairs, blackmailers, and spies, and each time is forced on the run again.
Still, as careful as she’s been all this time, each podcast episode seems to draw in more fans and online sleuths eager to bring her to justice. Ophir’s narration is unreliable but irresistible—she’s funny, spiky, tough, and unnerving. In the end her longing for connection is what eventually jeopardizes her hard-won freedom. Soon she’s confronted with a high-stakes choice that could change her fate forever.
Names Have Been Changed is an episodic confession that reveals the complicated paths we take to build a life and a home. Filled with danger and twists, ultimately, it's an immigrant story... but one unlike any you’ve seen before.
