INDIAN COUNTRY

In this multi-generational novel, a couple from India move to Montana, generating a stunning tapestry of stories that show just how brutal and unforgiving hubris can be. A bold, ambitious, beautiful tale about colonialism and the rippling ramifications still felt today.

Janavi and Sagar were never meant to end up married: Janavi is a wonderfully independent, young modern woman who works for an organization in India that helps street children. Sagar is a trained hydraulic engineer, an expert in dam construction. He is the least favorite son, his parents never able to forgive him for an unspeakable act from his past, who seeks refuge in his daydreams. Yet the two are forced together into an arranged marriage which neither of them wants. Even worse, Sagar has already accepted a job in America, in a strange place called Montana in America, where he will be in charge of dismantling a dam. Montana upends all their expectations. Sagar's white colleagues do not welcome him with open arms, and Janavi finds herself unable to forgive her sister whose betrayal led her to this marriage and this strange place. When a colleague of Sagar's is found drowned, Sagar is the obvious scapegoat. But is this death one in a long history of women of color paying the price for the white man's arrogance and expansionism? Complicated, fearless, and provocative, this is perfect for readers of books like Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half or Téa Obreht's The Tiger's Wife. Shobha Rao moved to the United States from India at the age of seven. She is the winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Fiction, and her story "Kavitha and Mustafa" was chosen by T.C. Boyle for inclusion in Best American Short Stories 2015. She is the author of the short story collection, An Unrestored Woman, and the novel, Girls Burn Brighter (Flatiron; Fleet/Little, Brown: UK; Neri Pozza: Italy), was published in 2018 to wonderful critical praise. Named a "Best Book of the Year" by The Washington Post and NPR, it was also longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. She lives in San Francisco.