America for Beginners: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of July 2018:America for Beginners is a road trip novel that follows an unlikely trio of characters as they travel across the United States together, and it’s everything you would want it to be: funny, heartwarming, sad and illuminating. Pival Sengupta, a wealthy Indian widow, has never left Kolkata, but upon her husband’s death she decides to travel to America to find out the truth about her estranged son, Rahi, whom she and her husband abandoned when they learned he was gay. Satya is her tour guide, a young Bangladeshi immigrant, and Rebecca is her female companion (for propriety sake), a sprite young American woman trying to make it as an actress. Though they couldn’t be more different, the three form an enduring bond as they travel from New York to Niagara Falls, New Orleans and finally to California—all the while learning from one another about the different ways to view the world and to experience it. Throughout the novel, Leah Franqui explores the power of heartbreak, family, and what it means to move on—from a loved one, a country and the past. America for Beginners is absorbing and alive and will make you laugh, cry and think about what it means to belong. —Al Woodworth