The Mango Season

From the acclaimed author of A Breath of Fresh Air, this beautiful novel takes us to modern India during the height of the summer€s mango season. Heat, passion, and controversy explode as a woman is forced to decide between romance and tradition.

Every young Indian leaving the homeland for the United States is given the following orders by their parents: Don€t eat any cow (It€s still sacred!), don€t go out too much, save (and save, and save) your money, and most important, do not marry a foreigner. Priya Rao left India when she was twenty to study in the U.S., and she€s never been back. Now, seven years later, she€s out of excuses. She has to return and give her family the news: She€s engaged to Nick Collins, a kind, loving American man. It€s going to break their hearts.

Returning to India is an overwhelming experience for Priya. When she was growing up, summer was all about mangoes€"ripe, sweet mangoes, bursting with juices that dripped down your chin, hands, and neck. But after years away, she sweats as if she€s never been through an Indian summer before. Everything looks dirtier than she remembered. And things that used to seem natural (a buffalo strolling down a newly laid asphalt road, for example) now feel totally chaotic.

But Priya€s relatives remain the same. Her mother and father insist that it€s time they arranged her marriage to a €œnice Indian boy.€ Her extended family talks of nothing but marriage€"particularly the marriage of her uncle Anand, which still has them reeling. Not only did Anand marry a woman from another Indian state, but he also married for love. Happiness and love are not the point of her grandparents€ or her parents€ union. In her family€s rule book, duty is at the top of the list.

Just as Priya begins to feel she can€t possibly tell her family that she€s engaged to an American, a secret is revealed that leaves her stunned and off-balance. Now she is forced to choose between the love of her family and Nick, the love of her life.

As sharp and intoxicating as sugarcane juice bought fresh from a market cart, The Mango Season is a delightful trip into the heart and soul of both contemporary India and a woman on the edge of a profound life change.