The immigrant experience has been mined by Indian American writers for what seems like forever, considering everyone from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Jhumpa Lahiri to Thrity Umrigar and Nalini Jones have relied on that clash of cultures for source material.

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It’s easy to force Mira Jacob into this category too, prompting comparisons by which one can then evaluate her debut novel. To do so would be unfair though, not simply because she clearly does have a voice of her own. What she also has is the skill to use ingenious cues like music from the 1980s to drive her two-decade long tale of a family’s derailment forward. Another thing that works in her favour is the ability to find comedy in the midst of tragedy which, like writing about sex, is a potential stumbling for so many.