February 1, 2022
Fiftyish Bengali American Shantanu Das is divorced from his wife, estranged from elder daughter Mitali, and deeply regretful that he rejected teenage daughter Keya, now deceased, after she came out. Then he discovers an unfinished manuscript that Keya was writing with her girlfriend, and as the anniversary of Keya's death approaches, the entire family becomes involved with a suggestion from Mitali's new boyfriend: to reconnect and make amends, they could stage the manuscript as a play. A fiction debut from New York Times reporter Deb (Missed Translations); with a 60,000-copy first printing.
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May 1, 2022
Years after a young woman's death in a car crash, a hidden trove of her belongings kick-starts a Bengali American family's healing. Five years after his teenage daughter's untimely death, middle-aged anthropology professor Shantanu Das finds a box in his attic. The box is full of notes passed between his late daughter, Keya, and her high school girlfriend, Pamela, along with a play they wrote together. Although Shantanu has tried to bury the shame of his homophobic reaction to Keya's coming out, he's haunted by the fact that he didn't reconcile with her before her death. After he tells his other daughter, Mitali, about the play, her new boyfriend suggests they stage it. Despite an initial bout of reluctance, Shantanu gets on board, but Mitali and Keya's newly remarried mother, Chaitali, wants to leave the past in the past...and then there's the question of what Pamela thinks. This debut novel from Deb, a writer at the New York Times who has previously published a memoir, is a modest, readable effort that barely scratches the surface of its dark, complex premise. The novel is enjoyably stuffed with specific detail pulled from the author's own life--he grew up in the Bengali community in the New Jersey town where the story takes place and draws on his experience reporting on New York City's culture scene when writing about Broadway--but the characters remain stiff and two-dimensional. Though their explanations of their own feelings make sense, Deb has trouble conveying those feelings on a visceral level. Their grief is particularly difficult to access since Keya, despite being the novel's title character, remains a vague presence. And it's frustrating to read a novel about a young queer woman who died prematurely told primarily from the perspectives of straight people. A story about grief that never fully comes to life.
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May 30, 2022
Deb’s charming if not always credible debut novel (after the memoir Missed Translations) charts a middle-class Bengali family’s grief and gradual recovery in a New Jersey suburb. When high school student Keya Das dies in a car accident, her mother, father and, older sister are stricken with sorrow and guilt. Keya had been estranged from her family for two months before her death, after she had come out to them about being gay, to which the family members responded less than enthusiastically. The novel begins five years after Keya’s death. Keya’s mom and dad, because of the strain of the tragedy, have divorced. Her anthropology professor dad, Shantanu, still grieving, is cleaning out the family home before moving. He discovers an unfinished play about their relationship cowritten by Keya and her girlfriend, Pamela, and shares it with his ex-wife, Chaitali, and older daughter, Mitali. Together, they decide to honor Keya by mounting a production in New Brunswick. A melodramatic subplot involving Mitali’s mildly unhinged drummer boyfriend, complete with cocaine addiction and underworld chicanery, threatens to derail the novel, but Deb packs in plenty of well-observed domestic details. Though it’s mixed bag, Deb knows how to craft a family narrative. Agent: David Larabell, CAA.
June 1, 2022
Aging professor Shantanu Das' life is empty. Filled with photos and other treasures that bring back memories he tries to forget, his suburban home feels too large for one person. Now he relives the day when, five years ago, his daughter, Keya, shared a secret that changed their lives forever, and wishes he could do it all again differently. Devastated by grief, the family tried to move forward but instead steadily drifted apart. When Shantanu discovers notes Keya wrote in high school, including the script for a play, the Das family decides to finish what Keya started and bring her play to life, with the help of friends. Along the way, Shantanu and his family slowly begin to rebuild themselves and reconnect with each other in new and surprising ways. Full of regret, mistakes, love, redemption, and second chances, New York Times reporter Deb's (Missed Translations, 2020) first novel is a painfully beautiful story that gives hope to all who have lost a loved one and wished for a second act of their own.
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