America for Beginners
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- ¥1,500
発行者による作品情報
Sometimes you have to go a long way to find what you’re looking for. And sometimes a little beginner’s luck is all you need…
• Welcome to the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company•
• One fixed itinerary, one fixed price•
• All levels catered for•
• No refunds•
Beginner
Recently widowed Pival Sengupta has never travelled alone before and her first trip to this strange country masks a secret agenda: to find out the truth about her long-estranged son.
Intermediate
Satya, her guileless and resourceful tour guide, has been in America for less than a year – and has never actually left the five boroughs of New York.
Advanced
An aspiring/failing actress, Rebecca signed up for the role of Pival’s modesty companion; it might not be her big break but surely it’ll break her out of the rut she’s stuck in.
As their preconceptions about each other and about America are challenged, with a little beginner’s luck, these unlikely companions might learn how to live again.
A big-hearted, hilarious tale of forgiveness, hope, and acceptance, reminding us that there is no roadmap to life.
Reviews
‘An entrancing road-trip novel… humane, frank and funny’ Deborah Moggach
‘A witty, wise and compelling romp’ Helen Lederer
About the author
Leah Franqui is a graduate of Yale University. She is a playwright and the recipient of the 2013 Goldberg Playwriting Award. A Puerto Rican-Jewish Philadelphia native, Leah lives with her Kolkata-born husband in Mumbai. America for Beginners is her first novel.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Franqui's debut is a satisfying, heartfelt novel about three strangers whose lives are altered on a trip across the U.S. Widow Pival Sengupta is a quietly determined Bengali woman intent on leaving Kolkata for the first time to discover what really happened to her son, Rahi, in the U.S. After Rahi came out to his parents as gay nearly a year ago, Pival's late husband told her Rahi died suddenly, but she refuses to believe it. Satya Roy is a young, inexperienced travel guide chosen by his boss to lead Pival on the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour under the guise of being Bengali, although he's Bangladeshi. Rebecca Elliot is a young, struggling actress with poor impulse control who is also along on the tour. Satya pretends to be knowledgeable in Americana as the trio travel from New York across the country, and Satya and Rebecca are under the mistaken impression that Pival is fascinated by the tour stops, but she's actually biding her time until they reach Los Angeles. Interspersed through the travels are chapters about Rahi and his relationship with his partner, Jacob. In this story of mistaken impressions, Franqui adroitly balances all the characters, making them distinct and refreshing. Readers will be taken by this emotionally rewarding novel.
