'One Amazing Thing' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a story set in a collapsed embassy building where a group of diverse characters are trapped. To pass the time while waiting to be rescued, each character is asked to share a story about one amazing thing that happened to them. delves into the psychological insights of the characters, revealing intimate details of their lives and exploring how people think and react to life during a life-threatening situation. The storytelling aspect of the book helps the characters bond closely, shattering stereotypes and forming connections that transform both the characters and the reader.
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Triggers include themes of trauma, depression, and existential crises due to the disaster.
From The Publisher:
An acclaimed novel by the author of The Mistress of Spices, and Before We Visit the Goddess. Jhumpa Lahiri praises: "One Amazing Thing collapses the walls dividing characters and cultures; what endures is a chorus of voices in one single room."
Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair.
When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival - and about the reasons to survive.
What can you read after
One amazing thing?
About the Author:
Chitra Divakaruni is an award-winning and bestselling novelist and poet. She is the author of fourteen books in all, including the short story collection The Unknown Errors of Our Lives and the novels Sister of My Heart, The Mistress of Spices, Queen of Dreams, and The Palace of Illusions. Two of her novels have been made into movies. Her writings have appeared in more than fifty magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and the New Yorker. She has also become a frequently sought-after op-ed and NPR commentator regarding how the West perceives Southeast Asia.
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