i personally grew tired of the way Swati kept thinking about how she’d be treated if she spoke to her mother-in-law the way Rachel spoke to her like we get it, they’re different, Americans are extremely disrespectful, when are they going to interact personally with each other and finally overcome the obstacles of culture shock to get along and grow closer? Fifi’s social schedule is packed and she has a job she enjoys; she and her husband explore Mumbai and make it theirs. She is the author of the chapbooks Translation (Paper Nautilus, 2019, winner of the 2018 Vella Chapbook Prize), Tropicália (Newfound, forthcoming, winner of the 2020 Newfound Prose Prize) and Amblyopia (forthcoming, Bull City Press - INCH micro-chapbook series).

Maybe part of this is because it's grounded in differences in culture so it provides extra depth and dimension by exposing you to the perspective of someone who has lived with different life expectations, ascribed and imposed. On the other hand it will also surely be required reading for everyone wanting original anthropological insights into the daily life and tensions of minorities in the Levant a generation ago. Most of the inhabitants were peasants in every sense of that anachronistic term, and eked out a living by attempting to tame sea and soil. It’s a tender tale of two women who are lost and alone, but who eventually become allies and each other’s biggest champions. A description of a family “enmeshed in perpetual contention”, the plot is slight but sufficient for Theroux’s purposes.I thought when i moved here that I would find the things I wanted, but I have only become more and more confused. Rachel and Swati clash over Swati’s insistence on hiring extra domestic help, Rachel’s penchant for stiff drinks, and, of course, the question of when and how a daughter-in-law should be allowed to say no to her mother-in-law. In addition to the places where each of these women is struggling to find herself, they are facing a mindset where a woman making her own choices and decisions is regarded as shameful.

The novel is a quick read, driven by a plot that will pique readers’ curiosity about how Rachel and Swati’s disagreements, large and small, will resolve. Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown, HarperCollins has a long and rich history that reaches back to the early nineteenth century and offers our publishing team a depth of experience. At this, Brenner beamed, his already-wide face stretched further across the thick bones of his skull. But the ex-pat American’s sense of adventure is sorely tested when her mother-in-law, Swati, suddenly arrives from Kolkata—a thousand miles away—alone, with an even more shocking announcement: she’s left her husband of more than forty years and moving in with them.Heartfelt, charming, deeply insightful and wise, Mother Land introduces us to two ver