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Dimple Lala thought that growing up would give her all the answers, but instead she has more questions than ever. Her boyfriend is distant, her classmates are predictable, and a blue mood has settled around the edges of everything she does.
It's time for a change, and a change is just what Dimple is going to get - of scenery, of cultures, of mind. She thinks she's heading to Bombay for a family wedding - but really she is plunging into the unexpected, the unmapped, and the uncontrollable. The land of her parents and ancestors has a lot to reveal to her - for every choice we make can crescendo into a journey, every ending can turn into a beginning, and each person we meet can show us something new about ourselves.
Tanuja Desai Hidier's Born Confused gave voice to a new multicultural generation. Now, Bombay Blues explores everything this generation faces today, with a heady mix of uncertainty and determination, despair and inspiration, haunting loss and revelatory love.
"Starred Review. Sankalp, a wish: that readers let the poetry and music transport them; it's a journey worth making. Ages 15+" - Kirkus
"While the previous book engaged and informed readers about the protagonist's bicultural angst, this work assumes a familiarity with Hindi terms... that may perplex less knowledgable teens. Nonetheless, for Dimple, exploring Bombay becomes a liberating metaphor for expressing passions and establishing beliefs." - School Library Journal
This information about Bombay Blues 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.
Tanuja Desai Hidier is a writer/singer-songwriter, born and raised in the USA and now based in London.
Her first novel, Born Confused - the first ever South Asian American coming-of-age story, set in the context of New York City's bhangra/underground club scene - was hailed in a Publishers Weekly starred review as "absorbing and intoxicating ...sure to leave a lasting impression," and as "a breathtaking experience" by Kirkus Reviews. It was named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults and became a landmark novel, recently selected by Entertainment Weekly as a contender for one of the best YA novels of all time.
Her latest novel is Bombay Blues, the sequel to Born Confused.
Tanuja's new 'booktrack' album of original songs to accompany Bombay Blues will also launch this summer. "When We Were Twins", her album of original songs based on Born Confused, was featured in Wired Magazine for being a first-ever booktrack; Wired deemed it "...reminiscent of Alanis Morissette...[the music] reflects the clash of styles, sounds, and influences inherent to cultural assimilation and urban living."
Please visit www.ThisIsTanuja.com for more info.
If you liked Bombay Blues, try these:
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
by Kiran Desai
Published 2026
A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years—an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize–winning author of The Inheritance of Loss.
The Most Precious Substance on Earth
by Shashi Bhat
Published 2023
Journey Prize winner Shashi Bhat's sharp, darkly comic, and poignant story about a high school student's traumatic experience and how it irrevocably alters her life, for fans of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, Girlhood, and Pen15.
by Kyle Lucia Wu
Published 2021
A perceptive and powerful debut of identity and belonging - of a young woman determined to be seen.
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