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In this follow-up to the critically-acclaimed The Laughter—winner of the Washington State Book Award—a middle-aged woman starts a firestorm when she holds a contest, based on an ancient Indian ritual, in which men must compete to win her affections.
A woman who has left two husbands announces she will celebrate her 55th birthday by holding a swayamvar. Drawn from an ancient custom in her Indian culture, this is an event in which suitors line up to compete in a feat of wills and strength to win a beautiful princess's hand in marriage. The woman, a renowned and respected intellectual in an American town who had once declared she was "past such petty matters as love," knows she is now setting herself up for widespread societal ridicule, but her self-esteem and sexual libido are off the charts even as her body withers from disability, fading beauty, and her appetite for cake.
To her surprise, a cast of characters shows up to support her call—a wedding planner looking for the next enchanting thing, a disability rights activist making a documentary film, and even, begrudgingly, her own young adult son. The Men's Rights Movement protests her project, angry at her objectification of men. She is waylaid by visitations from goddesses and princesses past, who either try to slap sense into her or cheer her on. She must also reckon with a brutal love story in her ancestry that was endangered by the caste system—a story that placed a generational curse on those in the family who show an intemperance of spirit. As her whole plan spirals into a spectacle, the woman embarks on a journey to decide what feat her suitor must perform to be worthy of her wrinkling hand. What feat will define a newer, better masculinity? What feat will it take for her to trust in the tenderness of love?
Intemperance is at once a satirical feminist folktale and a meditation on how we might reach past all sense and still find love.
Aspen Words Literary Prize 2026 shortlist
Shortlist contenders for this years prize: Endling by Maria Reva The True True Story of Raja the Gullible and His Mother by Rabih Alameddine Intemperance by Sonora Jha So Far Gone by Jess Walter Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaughy The winner announced tonight was: Endling by Maria Reva
-Anne_Glasgow
"Jha adds depth to the brisk story with hints of the narrator's troubled family history and sticks the landing with a surprising and rewarding conclusion. It's a fresh and sassy take on romantic comedy conventions." —Publishers Weekly
"Jha uses her heroine to discuss specific issues that become universal. Despite the absurdity around her, the heroine remains certain of herself and true to herself, to her benefit and detriment. Her sense of inner peace grounds the narrative." —Kirkus Reviews
"Contemplating difficult questions about desire, aging, and cultural identity, Jha leverages humor and wisdom for an authentic, compelling blend of modern perspectives and ancient mythology. Readers who enjoyed the cultural tension in Kiley Reid's Such a Fun Age and the midlife reckonings in Jenny Offill's Weather will find much to appreciate in Jha's exploration of late-in-life love, tradition, and the courage to challenge conventional expectations." —Booklist
"Oh, what fun I had reading this wild romp of a novel. But Intemperance—narrated by one of the funniest and most charming fictional characters I've met in my life—is more than a good time. It's a disarmingly honest and urgent book about the human search for love in all corners of existence: in the divine; in our fellow beings, human and not; and ultimately, within ourselves." —Vauhini Vara, author of Searches, This Is Salvaged, and the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Immortal King Rao
"Gorgeous, witty, sexy, and smart, Intemperance is a wonderfully original tale of a woman facing off her own cynicism about love—and prevailing. Jha writes like a dream, and this book will delight you." —Susan Orlean, New York Times bestselling author of Joyride and The Library Book
This information about Intemperance 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.
Sonora Jha is the author of the novels The Laughter and Foreign, and the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son. After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a PhD in media and public affairs. Sonora and her work have been featured in the New York Times and literary anthologies, on the BBC, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism at Seattle University and lives in Seattle.
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