MOTHER LAND

From the critically acclaimed author of America for Beginners, a wonderfully insightful, witty, and heart-piercing novel, set in Mumbai, about an impulsive American woman, her headstrong Indian mother-in-law, and the unexpected twists and turns of life that bond them.

When the American Rachel Meyer marries Indian Dhruv Aggarwal and agrees to move with him to Mumbai, she knows enough to expect some culture shock - but she's impulsive to think about of it more as an unpredictable adventure.

She certainly did not predict, for instance, the unannounced arrival of Dhruv's mother, Swati, who promptly states that she is leaving her husband of nearly forty years and is moving in with the newlywed couple. And she absolutely didn't expect Dhruv to be called away merely days later for a month-long business trip. As Rachel tries to get to know the woman whose appearance upends her life, she begins to understand not only why Swati has left her husband, but also to realize that perhaps the two of them are not as different as Rachel first assumed. Meanwhile Swati, who finds Rachel to be nothing like the Indian wife she had hoped for, also comes to appreciate exactly the foreignness about Rachel that initially puts her off.
As Swati and Rachel begin to better understand one another, the development of their relationship allows them to better understand themselves as well.

Leah Franqui is a graduate of Yale University and received an MFA at NYU-Tisch. She is also a playwright and the recipient of the 2013 Goldberg Playwriting Award. She also wrote a web series for which she received the Alfred Sloan Foundation Screenwriting award (aftereverafterwebseries.com). Leah, a Puerto Rican-Jewish Philadelphia native, lives with her Kolkata-born husband in Mumbai. Her debut novel, AMERICA FOR BEGINNERS, published in July 2018.