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Peacocks of Instagram

Stories

ebook
89 of 90 copies available
89 of 90 copies available

Finalist, 2024 Giller Prize

Engrossing, witty yet devastating stories about diasporic Indians that deftly question what it means to be safe, to survive, and to call a place home.

An underappreciated coffee shop server haunted by her past attracts thousands of followers on social media with her peacock jewellery. A hotel housekeeper up against a world of gender and class inequity quietly gets revenge on her chauvinist boss. And a foster child, orphaned in an accident directly attributable to climate change, brings down her foster father, an oil lobbyist, in spectacular fashion.

With an intense awareness of privilege and the lack of it, the fourteen stunning stories in Peacocks of Instagram explore what it means to be safe, to survive, and to call a place home.

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    • Booklist

      April 15, 2024
      Defying the model minority trope that weaves through many Indian American narratives, Rajagopalan's debut features raw and acerbic characters. Loosely interlinked, the stories in this collection are set both in North America and India, with experiences in one country molding lives in another. Occasionally, the characters, like Rahel's lover in the story "Rahel," come across as one-dimensional. A few characters, like Devi, who glimpses young adulthood through a math club in India, move to a discombobulated life abroad. In another story, a young Canadian American girl travels with her parents to India as they seek a kidney donation for her mother. The most touching story is "Surya, Listen!" in which a husband and wife, Imran and Bhanu, struggle to cope with the caretaking demands of their son, who has been permanently scarred by a devastating accident. Bhanu's plight is especially challenging because her marriage to a Muslim man already has relegated her to the fringes of the social circles she would otherwise move in. The stories offer descriptions of characters' lives, but fall short of revealing insights. An uneven but engaging debut.

      COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

Languages

  • English

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