Read by Soneela Nankani

After living in the United States for years, Maneka Roy returns home to India to mourn the loss of her mother and finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur where her father now lives is nothing like the part of the country where she grew up, and the more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing―and no one―here is as it appears. Ultimately, it will take an unexpected tragic event for Maneka and those around her to finally understand just how fragile life is in this city built on aspirations. Written from the perspectives of ten different characters, Oindrila Mukherjee's incisive debut novel explores class divisions, gender roles, and stories of survival within a society that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly Americanized. It is a story about India today and people impacted by globalization everywhere: a tale of ambition, longing, and bitter loss that asks what it really costs to try and build a dream. "The Dream Builders is such an impressive feat of storytelling, a novel that examines the constraints of class, of gender, of history." "Funny, moving, and often deliciously cynical." "A multitude of voices and visions…come together to create an astonishing, and astonishingly accurate, portrait of contemporary India." "A novel of epic proportions…{with} characters who are often real enough to remind us of ourselves, even as they betray one another, even as they betray themselves."

Mode of access: World Wide Web