Rakesh Satyal

Harvard Book Store welcomes the award-winning author of Blue Boy RAKESH SATYAL for a discussion of his latest novel, No One Can Pronounce My Name—a multigenerational novel about immigrants and outsiders trying to find their place in American society and within their own families.

About No One Can Pronounce My Name

In a suburb outside Cleveland, a community of Indian Americans has settled into lives that straddle the divide between Eastern and Western cultures. For some, America is a bewildering and alienating place where coworkers can’t pronounce your name but will eagerly repeat the Sanskrit phrases from their yoga class. Harit, a lonely Indian immigrant in his mid forties, lives with his mother who can no longer function after the death of Harit’s sister, Swati. In a misguided attempt to keep both himself and his mother sane, Harit has taken to dressing up in a sari every night to pass himself off as his sister. Meanwhile, Ranjana, also an Indian immigrant in her mid forties, has just seen her only child, Prashant, off to college. Worried that her husband has begun an affair, she seeks solace by writing paranormal romances in secret. When Harit and Ranjana’s paths cross, they begin a strange yet necessary friendship that brings to light their own passions and fears.

Rakesh Satyal's No One Can Pronounce My Name is a distinctive, funny, and insightful look into the lives of people who must reconcile the strictures of their culture and traditions with their own dreams and desires.

Praise

"A big-hearted, hopeful, and often very funny novel about the unpredictability of love...as well as a celebration of how, in America, it's never too late to rethink who you are—or who you might become. Satyal has created a set of characters you'll cheer for." —Hanya Yanagihara, New York Times–bestselling author of The People in the Trees and A Little Life 

"Affecting, kindhearted and infectiously readable, No One Can Pronounce My Name is full of memorable characters joined by their yearning to belong. Rakesh Satyal spins a funny and unpredictable multigenerational tale that glitters with warmth and wisdom."  —Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? and Today Will Be Different

"This humane, moving, and very funny book offers something precious and rare: a novel devoted to the lifegiving bond of friendship. Through a quintessentially American tale of misfits and dreamers, Rakesh Satyal has given us a fresh vision of America: a country of strangers seeking connection, of households lit with contrary desires, held together by resourceful and enduring love." —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You