A Good Indian Wife: A Novel - Hardcover

Cherian, Anne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393065235 ISBN 13: 9780393065237

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

Synopsis

A clash of hearts and cultures set against the divergent backdrops of rural India and downtown San Francisco.

Handsome anesthesiologist Neel prides himself on his decisiveness, both in and out of the operating room. So when he agrees to return to India to visit his ailing grand­father, he is sure he’ll be able to resist his family’s pleas that he marry a “good” Indian girl. With a girlfriend and a promising career back in San Francisco, the last thing Neel needs is an arranged marriage. Leila is a thirty-year-old teacher in Neel’s family’s village who has watched too many prospective husbands come and go to think her newest suitor will be any different. She is well past prime marrying age; her family has no money for a dowry; and then there’s the matter of an old friendship with a Muslim boy named Janni. Neel and Leila struggle to reconcile their own desires with the expectations of others in this riveting story of two people, two countries, and two ways of life that may be more compatible than they seem.

About this title

About the Author:

Anne Cherian is the author of A Good Indian Wife and The Invitation. Born and raised in Jamshedpur, India, she now lives in Los Angeles, California.

From Booklist:

Suneel Sarath was born in India, but he is completely Americanized. A Stanford graduate, he is now an anesthesiologist in a San Francisco hospital, owns a condo, and even has a girlfriend from Wisconsin. So he is stunned when, despite his best efforts to be independent, he finds himself returning from a visit to his home village with a “good” Indian bride his parents picked for him. Teacher Leila, though pretty, is a spinster by village standards, and she’s thrilled with her new husband. But Neel remains shocked and in denial and goes on with his routine, leaving Leila to fend for herself in her new world. But sooner or later he has to face his wife, find a halfway point between his rural Indian heritage and urban America life, and decide if Leila is more to him than just part of a contract his parents agreed on. Cherian’s debut novel adds new dimension to the concept and experience of an arranged marriage, and considers such complex and salient issues as immigration and assimilation. --Hilary Hatton

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0393065235
• ISBN 13: 9780393065237
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384