A comparative reading of the novels <em>Native Speaker </em>(1995), by the North American writer Chang-rae Lee, and <em>O sol se põe em São Paulo</em> (2007), by Bernardo Carvalho, allows for a reevaluation of how minority identities have been constructed in the two American megalopolises New York and São Paulo. The plotlines of both novels hinge on the identity crisis of a second-generation Asian immigrant.