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26-year-old Akash Amin has everything he ever wanted, but as he tries to kickstart his songwriting career and commit to his boyfriend, he is haunted by the painful memories he fled a decade ago.
When his mother tells him she is selling the family home, Akash returns to Illinois, hoping to finally say goodbye and move on. Renu Amin always seemed perfect: doting husband, beautiful house, healthy sons. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband's death approaches, Renu can't stop wondering if, thirty-five years ago, she chose the wrong life.
Together, Renu and Akash pack up the house, retreating further into the secrets that stand between them. Renu sends an innocent Facebook message to the man she almost married while Akash slips back into bad habits as he confronts his darkest secrets?including what really happened between him and the first boy who broke his heart. When their pasts catch up to them, Renu and Akash must decide between the lives they left behind and the ones they've since created.
By turns irreverent and tender, filled with the beats of '90s R&B, Tell Me How to Be is about our earliest betrayals and the cost of reconciliation. But most of all, it is the love story of a mother and son each trying to figure out how to be in the world.
About the author
Neel Patel is a first-generation Indian American who grew up in Champaign, Illinois. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and his short stories have appeared in
The Southampton Review, Indiana Review, The American Literary Review, Hyphen Magazine, and on BuzzFeed and Nerve.com.
Tell Me How to Be is his debut novel.
Summary
INAUGURAL LILLY'S LIBRARY BOOK CLUB PICK FROM LILLY SINGH
'I really loved this book' Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
'Patel writes with the wisdom and compassion of an old soul' Celeste Ng
'A love letter to R&B' Susie Yang, author of White Ivy
'Something everyone can relate to' Lilly Singh, author of How to Be a Bawse
'A soulful and seductive love song of a book' Nancy Jooyoun Kim, author of The Last Story of Mina Lee
'Absolutely loved it' Luan Goldie, author of Nightingale Point
'It made me laugh and cry' Kavita Puri, author of Partition Voices
'Refreshing...Defiant...Consistently surprising.' The New York Times Book Review
Lost in the jungle of Los Angeles, Akash Amin is filled with shame. Shame for liking men. Shame for wanting to be a songwriter. Shame for not being like his perfect brother. Shame for his alcoholism. And most of all, shame for what happened with the first boy he ever loved. When his mother tells him she is selling the family home, Akash must return to Illinois to confront his demons and the painful memory of a sexual awakening that became a nightmare.
Akash's mum, Renu, is also plagued by guilt. She had it all: doting husband, beautiful house, healthy sons. But as the one-year anniversary of her husband's death approaches Renu can't stop wondering if she chose the wrong life thirty-five years ago and should have stayed in London with her first love.
Together, Renu and Akash pack up the house, retreating further into the secrets that stand between them. When their pasts catch up to them, Renu and Akash must decide between the lives they left behind and the ones they've since created.
By turns irreverent and tender, filled with the beats of '90s R&B, Tell Me How to Be is about our earliest betrayals and the cost of reconciliation. But most of all, it is the love story of a mother and son each trying to figure out how to be in the world.
Foreword
For fans of It's a Sin and Call Me by Your Name, a darkly funny and heart-breaking debut about forbidden love and an Indian-American family confronting the secrets that lie between them.
Additional text
This book is so beautiful and evocative and relatable.
