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Published Jan 2023
384 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Paperback Original.
Publication Information
Written from the perspectives of ten different characters, Oindrila Mukherjee's incisive debut novel explores class divisions, gender roles, and stories of survival within a society that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly Americanized.
After living in the US for years, Maneka Roy returns home to India to mourn the loss of her mother and finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur where her father now lives is nothing like the part of the country where she grew up, and the more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing―and no one―here is as it appears. Ultimately, it will take an unexpected tragic event for Maneka and those around her to finally understand just how fragile life is in this city built on aspirations.
It's a story about India today, and people impacted by globalization everywhere: a tale of ambition, longing, and bitter loss that asks what it really costs to try and build a dream.
"The Dream Builders is a sweeping novel in which people go to great lengths to quell their feelings of loneliness and inadequacy." - Foreword Reviews (starred review)
"A sweeping debut... [Mukherjee] does a great job capturing the setting and exploring the fateful power dynamics... a penetrating look at the fast-growing country's shaky façade." - Publishers Weekly
"Mukherjee artfully demonstrates that even a new civilization can have its discontents."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Epic... A promising first novel." - Booklist
"The Dream Builders is a novel of epic proportions that follows Maneka Roy and those around her as they each ponder the power of forgiveness and learn none of them can wield that power without first forgiving the self. Oindrila Mukherjee allows full life for these characters who are often real enough to remind us of ourselves, even as they betray one another... even as they betray themselves. This is a lovely debut." - Jericho Brown, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Tradition
"Oindrila Mukherjee's The Dream Builders is such an impressive feat of storytelling, a novel that examines the constraints of class, of gender, of history, while showcasing the sheer expansiveness of the endeavor, skillfully shifting the point of view amongst a group of characters who each demand a claim on the story. It's a marvel of a structure, built by a great talent." - Kevin Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Nothing to See Here
"Mukherjee has written a funny, moving, and often deliciously cynical novel about the illusive ideal we sometimes call the New India. Written from almost every angle imaginable, the novel demonstrates how each of us might be a hero in our own narratives while being the potential villain in someone else's." - Tiphanie Yanique, author of Monster in the Middle
"A multitude of voices and visions―arresting, wrenching, desiring―come together to create an astonishing, and astonishingly accurate, portrait of contemporary India. Oindrila Mukherjee has done a superb job." - Chitra Divakaruni, bestselling author of The Mistress of Spices
This information about The Dream Builders was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Oindrila Mukherjee is an associate professor of creative writing at Grand Valley State University. She grew up in Kolkata, India, and resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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