by Jennifer Acker
Reviewed by Linda:
Jennifer Acker of Amherst College is editor of the school’s literary magazine The Common and organizer of LitFest, which brings distinguished writers to campus each spring. This elegantly written and thought-provoking novel of ideas does not read like the first novel that it is. Sunil Chandaria, son of Indian immigrants from Kenya, is a floundering Ph.D. student at Harvard. He struggles not just with his dissertation on the origins of moral beliefs but with secrets kept from his parents and vice versa. The book provides a fascinating glimpse of the lives of South Asians in Kenya and the challenges that immigrant families face as each generation is transformed into something new.