“Beautiful, thought-provoking [stories] about the costs of wanting children” (Kirkus Reviews), from the National Jewish Book Award-winning author of A Play for the End of the World (“an impressive debut” —Meg Wolitzer)”
"Whether in Brooklyn, Kolkata, upstate New York or elsewhere, these characters captured my heart and endure in my memory like loved ones.” —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country
In the fourteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race.
In the title story, a closeted gay man in 1980s Kolkata seeks to have a child with his lover’s wife. An Indian widow, engaged to a Jewish man, struggles to balance her cultural identity with the rituals and traditions of her newfound family. An American musician travels to see his guru for the final time—and makes a promise he cannot keep. A young woman from an Indian village arrives in Brooklyn to care for the toddler of a biracial couple. And a mystical agent is sent by a mother to solve her son’s domestic problems.
Throughout, the characters’ most vulnerable desires shape life-altering decisions as they seek to balance their needs against those of the people they hold closest. The stories in A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness capture men and women struggling with transformation and familial bonds; they traverse the intersections of countries and cultures to illuminate what it means to love in uncertain times; and they showcase the skill of a storyteller who dazzles with the breadth of his vision.
Genre: Literary Fiction
"Whether in Brooklyn, Kolkata, upstate New York or elsewhere, these characters captured my heart and endure in my memory like loved ones.” —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country
In the fourteen masterful stories that make up this collection, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions, and race.
In the title story, a closeted gay man in 1980s Kolkata seeks to have a child with his lover’s wife. An Indian widow, engaged to a Jewish man, struggles to balance her cultural identity with the rituals and traditions of her newfound family. An American musician travels to see his guru for the final time—and makes a promise he cannot keep. A young woman from an Indian village arrives in Brooklyn to care for the toddler of a biracial couple. And a mystical agent is sent by a mother to solve her son’s domestic problems.
Throughout, the characters’ most vulnerable desires shape life-altering decisions as they seek to balance their needs against those of the people they hold closest. The stories in A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness capture men and women struggling with transformation and familial bonds; they traverse the intersections of countries and cultures to illuminate what it means to love in uncertain times; and they showcase the skill of a storyteller who dazzles with the breadth of his vision.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a tender, exquisite blessing of a book, from an author whose compassion, wit and imagination feel as vast as the world itself. Whether in Brooklyn, Kolkata, upstate New York or elsewhere, these characters captured my heart and endure in my memory like loved ones." - Mia Alvar
"I meant to read only the first story of Jai Chakrabarti's masterful collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, but the characters quickly swept me away. They linger and charm, find and refuse their happinesses, parent themselves and others in endless, enigmatic ways. This is a collection that turns on breathtaking mettle and heart-rending delicacy. I can't imagine a reader who wouldn't find something precious in these pages." - Marie-Helene Bertino
"These are beautiful stories, sometimes wrenching, sometimes redeeming, always pulling us into unexpected spaces - of the world, of the human heart. Chakrabarti is an accomplished and insightful writer." - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
"Jai Chakrabarti offers real magic with A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, opening worlds upon worlds with each sentence. To follow him is to succumb to the pure joy of disappearing into a book completely." - Mira Jacob
"With a poet's sense of compression and a wonderful feel for the catastrophic gaps that can open up between countries, people, and behaviors, Jai Chakrabarthi's A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is essential reading for its title story alone. It is a moving, immersive, timely collection about what we hear and don't hear when we try to talk to one another." - Jonathan Lee
"Jai Chakrabarti is an elegant writer with clarity of vision and greatness of heart. His new book expands the world in some mysterious way." - Luis Alberto Urrea
"I meant to read only the first story of Jai Chakrabarti's masterful collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, but the characters quickly swept me away. They linger and charm, find and refuse their happinesses, parent themselves and others in endless, enigmatic ways. This is a collection that turns on breathtaking mettle and heart-rending delicacy. I can't imagine a reader who wouldn't find something precious in these pages." - Marie-Helene Bertino
"These are beautiful stories, sometimes wrenching, sometimes redeeming, always pulling us into unexpected spaces - of the world, of the human heart. Chakrabarti is an accomplished and insightful writer." - Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
"Jai Chakrabarti offers real magic with A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, opening worlds upon worlds with each sentence. To follow him is to succumb to the pure joy of disappearing into a book completely." - Mira Jacob
"With a poet's sense of compression and a wonderful feel for the catastrophic gaps that can open up between countries, people, and behaviors, Jai Chakrabarthi's A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is essential reading for its title story alone. It is a moving, immersive, timely collection about what we hear and don't hear when we try to talk to one another." - Jonathan Lee
"Jai Chakrabarti is an elegant writer with clarity of vision and greatness of heart. His new book expands the world in some mysterious way." - Luis Alberto Urrea
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