The Magnificent Ruins

Vikram Seth and Thrity Umrigar meet Rebecca in this exhilarating inheritance story about an Indian American book editor from Brooklyn who inherits her ancestral home in Kolkata,and her extended family still living there. With an unforgettable house at its hearta violent past erupting into the presenta problematic romanceand a compelling and conflicted heroinethis is an utterly addictive read that will spark conversation. .It is the summer of 2015and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in Indiainforming her that she’s inherited her family’s sprawling estateshe must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago. Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother after a decade of estrangementand then there are her grandmotherauntsunclesand cousinsall of whom still live in the houseall of whom resent her sudden inheritance. To make matters more complicatedher first boyfriend seeks her out when she arrivesand her star author-and occasional lover-is suddenly determined to make things serious. As Lila tries to come to terms with both past and presentlong-suppressed secrets from her family emergeculminating in an act of shocking violenceand she must finally reckon with her inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface. Wisewittyand deeply movingThe Magnificent Ruins is an utterly addictive read and a stunning debut.