"Family Life" by Indian-American Novelist in NYT's Top 10 Books of 2014

[caption id="attachment_1830" align="alignleft" width="282"] Image Credit: theguardian.com | Photograph: William G Miller[/caption]

Akhil Sharma is our next global Indian and a successful migrant story. Why him? He is a Novelist born in Delhi, India, and brought up in Edison, New Jersey.

Like many other migrants, Akhil too moved to the US at a young age of eight, and today is among notable novelists of the world. His book "Family Life" is rated among the 10 best books of 2014 by New York Times Review.

Global Indian: Delhi: A Little More About Akhil Sharma

Akhil Sharma is a Princeton University grad with a B.A at the Woodrow Wilson School. During the course of his study there, he studied under renowned writers like Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, Russell Banks, and Tony Kushner, and won a Stegner Fellowship for the writing program at Stanford.

His inspiration to become a writer increased manifolds. He tried his hand as a screenwriter, but did not succeed. Then he wrote his first book, "An Obedient Father" and won a PEN/Hemingway Award and Whiting Writers' Award for it in 2001. Akhil then published a series of other books including The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Fiction, and a few others.

Currently, this notable Indian-American writer works as an Assistant Professor in creative writing program at Rutgers University, Newark, besides working on his books.

"Family Life" - What's the Book About?

Family Life is Akhil Sharma's semi-autobiographical novel that depicts how an American dream turned sour after a tragedy strikes. The book answers every question of migrants who migrate from a developing India to a developed America, from the land of Cricket to the land of Baseball and Basketball. The books is about how a little boy craves for attention from his parents through his childhood when his brother meets with an accident and goes into coma.

The book was listed in Times List of 100 Notable Books of 2014 in the fiction and poetry section, and is now rated among the 10 Best Books by New York Times Review. New York Times describes the book as "deeply unnerving and gorgeously tender." It also noted that, "The book chronicles how grief renders the parents unable to cherish and raise their other son; love, it suggests, becomes warped and jagged and even seemingly vanishes in the midst of mourning."

Source: Economic Times. Wikipedia