Join us and award-winning author Rakesh Satyal for his newest novel, No One Can Pronounce My Name. Reminiscent of Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House, Satyal treats readers to a distinctive, funny, and insightful look into the lives of people who must reconcile the strictures of their culture and traditions with their own desires and dreams.
In a suburb outside Cleveland, a community of Indian Americans has settled into lives that straddle the divide between eastern and western cultures. For some, America is a bewildering and alienating place where coworkers can’t pronounce your name but will eagerly repeat the Sanskrit phrases from their yoga class. Harit, a lonely Indian immigrant in his mid-forties, lives with his mother who can no longer function after the death of Harit’s sister. In a misguided attempt to keep both himself and his mother sane, Harit has taken to dressing up in a sari every day to pass himself off as his sister Swati. Meanwhile, Ranjana, also an Indian immigrant in her mid-forties, has just seen her only child, Prashant, off to college. Worried that her husband has begun an affair, she seeks solace by writing paranormal romances in secret. When Harit and Ranjana’s paths cross, they begin a strange yet necessary friendship that brings to light their own passions and fears.