Malti Patel is used to being entirely self-sufficient. Nearly 40 years ago, in the wake of a divorce, she left her native India and moved with her young daughter, Kavya, halfway across the world to California. Since then, Malti has taken care of herself and her small family entirely on her own. And she’s done just fine, thank you very much. 

But now Malti is in her 70s, and when a freak accident outside Walgreens leaves her with a concussion, the hospital calls her emergency contact to bring her home. The only problem is that Malti’s contact, Kavya, recently enrolled in a graduate program in India.

"...a remarkably touching portrait of an unusual sort of friendship... This unexpected relationship, as well as the novel’s open-ended conclusion, will provide book clubs with plenty of lively debate and laughs alike."

That leaves Kavya’s husband, Nathan, to fill the void. Since he and Kavya are in the process of getting divorced, saying that this is a bit awkward is a huge understatement. Malti and Nathan have never gotten along. She resents his intrusion into her house, where he’s bound to find fault with her tendency to let home repairs slide, among other things. He’s brutally aware of her resentment, and, mending his own broken heart in the wake of Kavya’s departure, he doesn’t welcome any more reminders of his impending divorce.

Nathan, who is white, has always thought he’s done a pretty good job of trying to understand Malti and Kavya’s culture, even if he’s dismissed some of Malti’s folk remedies and beliefs. But the prospect of moving into her house for a week while she recuperates certainly serves to remind him of the yawning gulf between himself and his soon-to-be former mother-in-law. Beyond the differences in their cultural backgrounds, they’ve always assumed that they’re just too different to ever understand or even get to know one another. 

However, as the two spend the week together, they discover that they are nursing different versions of that same heartbreak. For Malti, the pain of Kavya’s abrupt departure is compounded by the knowledge that part of her desire to leave is for a chance to reconcile with the father who’s been essentially absent from her life since early childhood. Malti feels abandoned, as if the years she invested solo in Kavya’s upbringing are now being thrown away in favor of a father who didn’t put in the same time or resources when Kavya needed them most. 

It’s probably no shock that throwing these very different people together for a week of forced companionship is a recipe for some pretty lively comedy. But Parini Shroff’s SOME PEOPLE is not just a humorous novel. As these main characters reflect on their individual and shared positions, they come to learn that they have a lot more in common, and they might shoulder their own share of blame for Kavya’s decision to leave.

Chapters alternate between Malti and Nathan’s points of view, welcoming readers into their individual backstories while also providing glimpses into their shifting and expanding perceptions of one another. What results is a remarkably touching portrait of an unusual sort of friendship, one that might be forming too late to matter. Or maybe not. This unexpected relationship, as well as the novel’s open-ended conclusion, will provide book clubs with plenty of lively debate and laughs alike.