Disillusioned with modern romance, globe-trotting Meena tries an arranged marriage with Avi, an aspiring politician in Ohio. But when Avi's political opponent launches racist attacks, Meena and Avi are forced to defend their immigrant community, which narrowly understands its own traditions, and protect their increasingly shaky relationship. This is an intimate, funny, and heartbreaking novel about small-town America and the politics of marriage. Winner of the 2024 Carol Trawick Fiction Award from the Washington Writers' Publishing House.

Varun Gauri captures the travails of a modern young Indian couple who find love the old-fashioned way, to the surprise of their families. The couple struggles with scheming relatives. Small-town politics. Real estate deals. Nationalist agendas. What could possibly go wrong?- Susan Coll, author of Real Life and Other Fictions and former president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation

An exuberant debut that is as bitingly funny as it is wise. - Tania James, author of Loot.

A 2024 National Public Radio 'BOOKS WE LOVE' SELECTION