EBOOK
About
From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel in the tradition of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere, exploring the ties and fractures of a close-knit Indian-American family in the aftermath of a violent encounter with the police.
Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of the Shah family. For the Shah parents, who came to America twenty years earlier with little more than an education and their new marriage, this move represents the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. For their children, born and raised in America, success is not so simple.
For the most part, these differences among the five members of the Shah family are minor irritants, arguments between parents and children, older and younger siblings. But one Saturday night, the twelve-year-old son is arrested. The fallout from that event will shake each family member's perception of themselves as individuals, as community members, as Americans, and will lead each to consider: how do we define success? At what cost comes ambition? And what is our role and responsibility in the cultural mosaic of modern America?
For readers of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege as it reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American dream.
"Gowda renders even the worst decisions made by the Olanders with compassion and insight, so much so that rooting for them-despite and because of their fragility-becomes a pleasure. I know these characters, and I love them, and for some unnameable hours in this uneasy spring, their journey from life, to death, to life was also mine. What a gift, to be that transported, and, eventually-blessedly-transformed." - San Francisco Chronicle on The Shape of Family
"Not simply a story about tragedy or even the dangers of fervent devotion, but a story about mourning in all its myriad forms." - San Diego Union-Tribune on The Shape of Family
"This beautifully written, poignant novel explores how one loving family deals with an unspeakable tragedy. It's a novel about race and culture, parents and siblings, marriage and love, but most of all, it's about finding hope after darkness. Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a compassionate and wise storyteller who keeps us riveted from beginning to end." - Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation, on The Shape of Family
"Sympathetic and inspiring, this intimate story is bound to stick with you." - Ms. Magazine on The Shape of Family
"A deeply involving story of a family falling apart, The Shape of Family rings so true." - Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room
Pacific Hills, California: Gated communities, ocean views, well-tended lawns, serene pools, and now the new home of the Shah family. For the Shah parents, who came to America twenty years earlier with little more than an education and their new marriage, this move represents the culmination of years of hard work and dreaming. For their children, born and raised in America, success is not so simple.
For the most part, these differences among the five members of the Shah family are minor irritants, arguments between parents and children, older and younger siblings. But one Saturday night, the twelve-year-old son is arrested. The fallout from that event will shake each family member's perception of themselves as individuals, as community members, as Americans, and will lead each to consider: how do we define success? At what cost comes ambition? And what is our role and responsibility in the cultural mosaic of modern America?
For readers of The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, A Great Country explores themes of immigration, generational conflict, social class and privilege as it reconsiders the myth of the model minority and questions the price of the American dream.
"Gowda renders even the worst decisions made by the Olanders with compassion and insight, so much so that rooting for them-despite and because of their fragility-becomes a pleasure. I know these characters, and I love them, and for some unnameable hours in this uneasy spring, their journey from life, to death, to life was also mine. What a gift, to be that transported, and, eventually-blessedly-transformed." - San Francisco Chronicle on The Shape of Family
"Not simply a story about tragedy or even the dangers of fervent devotion, but a story about mourning in all its myriad forms." - San Diego Union-Tribune on The Shape of Family
"This beautifully written, poignant novel explores how one loving family deals with an unspeakable tragedy. It's a novel about race and culture, parents and siblings, marriage and love, but most of all, it's about finding hope after darkness. Shilpi Somaya Gowda is a compassionate and wise storyteller who keeps us riveted from beginning to end." - Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Translation, on The Shape of Family
"Sympathetic and inspiring, this intimate story is bound to stick with you." - Ms. Magazine on The Shape of Family
"A deeply involving story of a family falling apart, The Shape of Family rings so true." - Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of Room