About the Book
Nestled in the suburbs of Atlanta, a family learns the funniest punchlines can hide the hardest truths in this evocative women’s fiction novel from the author of Well-Behaved Indian Women
From the outside, the Joshi family is the quintessential Indian-American family. Decades ago, Bina and Deepak immigrated to America, where she became a pillar of their local Indian community and he, a successful psychiatrist. Their eldest daughter, Suhani, is following the footsteps of her father’s career and happily married. Natasha, their middle daughter, is about to become engaged to the son of longtime family friends. And Anuj, their son—well he’s a son and what could be better than that?
But a family scandal shows that nothing is as it seems. Bina’s oldest friendship starts to unravel and she finds herself as an outsider in the community she helped build. Suhani discovers that her perfect marriage isn’t as solid as she thought. Natasha faces a series of rejections that send her into a downward spiral.
As they encounter public humiliation, gossiping aunties, and self-doubt, the Joshi family must rely on each other like never before. But sometimes, family has to fall apart in order to come back stronger than before.
My Review
I enjoy reading stories that help me learn about other cultures, and with the Joshi family being Indian-American, I was intrigued to read about them. Our main character we follow is Natasha, but we also get POVs from her siblings and parents, which added another layer to the story. While they can seem like such a happy family from the outside, there is a lot of turmoil happening in their private lives. It was hard to watch a close-knit family seemingly fall apart, but I could understand the emotions of many of the characters and thought the writing was very fluid and hit a lot of feelings for me. The spotlight on mental health was an important subject that I was pleased to see addressed in a fiction novel, and I was happy to read how the Joshi family could come together in the end. A solid story of family, friendships and love.
4 stars
