The Juvenile Immigrant - Namrata Verghese

Namrata Verghese's collection of 20 short stories, 'Indian stories from America', is the best example of how the young, new generation sees and experiences the homeland from different angles. A new book captures the diaspora experience and identity politics that accompanies it - the disorders and triumphs of Indian immigrants, especially Malayalees, in America with minute detailing and a mix of colloquial words and lively narrative. This was 15th of 2020 and second in February.

Covering stories on how legally dependent's on spouse's H1-B visa families stay in fear; a mother on her way home fearing the impact of racial profiling on her young daughter Anjali in 'Alone'; back home for vacation how marriages are arranged and even rejected because the boy is “too poor, too dark, and most damningly, too Mar Toma"; A Hindu teenager eats a Big Mac to beat peer pressure from her American friends: “She found the burger delicious, but forced herself to throw it up within minutes; reverberating with current situations like beef ban; how saree move hands generation to generation; how secularism was given, but is being uprooted in Aaja Nachle; and guide to Bharathnatyam and Kathakali.

What is interesting is so well written it is, that it is incredible that the writer 'Namrata Verghese' graduated from Emory University in 2019 as a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar. A 'juvenile immigrant' herself, she was born in India and spent her early years in England before moving to the United States. Her writing has appeared in Tin House Online, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, World Literature Today and elsewhere. 'The Juvenile Immigrant' is her first book. Way to go girl....Best wishes.....Looking forward for your next book.