Tell me how to be / Neel Patel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Patel, Neel, author.

Contributor:

Class of 1891 Department of Arts Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Family secrets--Fiction.

Family secrets.

Mothers and sons--Fiction.

Mothers and sons.

East Indian Americans--Fiction.

East Indian Americans.

Gay men--Fiction.

Gay men.

Widows--Fiction.

Widows.

Illinois--Fiction.

Illinois.

Genre:

Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Novels.

LGBTQ+ fiction.

Physical Description:

324 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Flatiron Books, 2021.

Summary:

"From rising star Neel Patel ("refreshing...defiant...consistently surprising" --New York Times), a darkly funny and heartbreaking debut novel about an Indian-American family confronting the secrets between them. Renu Amin always seemed perfect: doting husband, beautiful house, healthy sons. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband's death approaches, Renu is binge-watching soap operas and simmering with old resentments. She can't stop wondering if, thirty-five years ago, she chose the wrong life. In Los Angeles, her son, Akash, has everything he ever wanted, but as he tries to kickstart his songwriting career and commit to his boyfriend, he is haunted by the painful memories he fled a decade ago. When his mother tells him she is selling the family home, Akash returns to Illinois, hoping to finally say goodbye and move on. Together, Renu and Akash pack up the house, retreating further into the secrets that stand between them. Renu sends an innocent Facebook message to the man she almost married, sparking an emotional affair that calls into question everything she thought she knew about herself. Akash slips back into bad habits as he confronts his darkest secrets-including what really happened between him and the first boy who broke his heart. When their pasts catch up to them, Renu and Akash must decide between the lives they left behind and the ones they've since created, between making each other happy and setting themselves free. By turns irreverent and tender, filled with the beats of '90s R&B, Tell Me How to Be is about our earliest betrayals and the cost of reconciliation. But most of all, it is the love story of a mother and son each trying to figure out how to be in the world"-- Provided by publisher.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1891 Department of Arts Fund.

ISBN:

9781250184979

1250184975

OCLC:

1257313197