Even though it is the country of her heritage, she feels like a fish out of water…at first. And she must make sacrifices such as not joining her family on a trip to India for her cousin’s wedding.Then…a family emergency compels her to return to her homeland. It is a demanding position where Preeti feels she has to work at least twice as hard to get the coveted carrot stick : partnership. It used to be the two of them against their parents until he switched teams.Her only saving grace is her approved “practical” career choice as a lawyer in a prestigious law firm. She also feels betrayed by older brother, Neel. She condescends to wearing “panjabis”(a term I am hearing for the first time to refer to the long top or “kurta” and either the leggings-type “churidaar” or harem pant-type “shalwar” along with a long scarf or “dupatta), eating the cuisine, and showing her face at family functions.Her not following the prescribed life-plan puts her on a collision course with her parents. Either she adheres to traditional beliefs and values or she becomes “westernized.” Both are mutually exclusive. In her mind, her ethnic background and appearance make her a misfit. Rather, she is self-absorbed and dismissive.

She doesn’t come across as particularly likable. Mismatched expectations, resentment, and double-standards. It was an adjustment for all of us and we each had our individual struggle with culture shock, assimilation, identity, and tradition. I can relate to the characters to some degree.Like the narrator, Preeti Desai, my parents emigrated to the United States when my brother and I were very young.

Stories set in India or Pakistan or centered on characters from those regions appeal to me. Torn between two beautifully flawed cultures, Preeti must now untangle what home truly means to her. Surrounded by the sights and sounds of her heritage, Preeti catches a startling glimpse of her family’s battles with class, tradition, and sacrifice. Years later, with her parents not speaking to her and her controversial relationship in tatters, all Preeti has left is her career at a prestigious Los Angeles law firm.īut when Preeti receives word of a terrible accident in the city where she was born, she returns to India, where she’ll have to face her estranged parents…and the complicated past they left behind. All she did was fall in love with a white Christian carnivore instead of a conventional Indian boy. In Mansi Shah’s stunning debut novel, a family tragedy beckons a first-generation immigrant to the city of her birth, where she grapples with her family’s past in search of where she truly belongs.Īfter her parents moved her and her brother to America, Preeti Desai never meant to tear her family apart.

The Taste of Ginger by Mansi Shah