Rakesh Satyal ’02’s novel No One Can Pronounce My Name (Picador) is the story of Indian Americans living in a suburb of Cleveland. The paths of protagonists Harit and Ranjana cross unexpectedly just as both face personal struggles in this story about friendship, culture, and reconciliation.
David Callahan *98 charts the rise of new power players as they convert the fortune of a second Gilded Age into influence. The Givers: Wealth, Power, and Philanthropy in a New Gilded Age (Knopf) shows how elites work behind the scenes on issues including education, the environment, science, and LGBT rights to have a deep impact on government policy. Callahan describes this power shift in American society and its implications.
Dina Nayeri ’01 tells the story of an Iranian girl who escapes to America as a child in her novel Refuge (Riverhead). The girl’s father stays behind, and over 20 years they see each other only four times. The longer they are apart, the more their lives diverge, but the more they need the other’s wisdom and rescue.