In a boxy apartment building in an American university town, Romola Mitra, a newly arrived young bride, anxiously awaits her first letter from home in India. When she accidentally opens the wrong letter, it changes her life. Decades later, her son Amit finds that letter and thinks he has discovered his mother's secret. But secrets have their own secrets sometimes, and a way of following their keepers... Amit does not know that Avinash, his dependable and devoted father, lurks on gay Internet groups at times, unable to set aside his lifelong attraction to men. Avinash has no idea that his dutiful wife had once romanced a dashing Bengali filmstar, whose memory she keeps tucked away in a diary amongst her silk saris... Growing up in Calcutta, in a house bustling with feisty grandmothers, Amit has been shielded from his parents' secrets. A successful computer engineer, he settles in San Francisco, torn between his new life and his duties towards the one he has left behind... Moving from adolescent rooftop games to adult encounters in gay bars, from hair salons in Calcutta to McDonald's drive-thrus in California, Don't Let Him Know is an unforgettable story about family, the struggle between having what we want and doing what we feel we must - and the sacrifices we make for those we love. Tender, powerful, and beautifully told, Don't Let Him Know marks the arrival of a brave new voice.
Industry Reviews
Don't Let Him Know is a rich, evocative and brilliantly told tale of family, of loyalties, and of love that must stay secret. Sandip Roy has broken new ground in this tale of the modern Indian family. A lovely read * Abraham Verghese * Sandip Roy's compelling characters strive to negotiate the distances between continents, generations and sexualities; through a dazzling mosaic of narrative snapshots Roy captures the arcs of entire lifetimes * Manil Suri * In this beautiful debut, Sandip Roy explores the fine line between knowing too little and knowing too much, and between understanding too little and understanding too much. Spanning decades and traveling between continents, the novel is an inquiry about how our secrets shape us, and how, in turn, we redefine ourselves constantly to avoid being trapped by the secrets * Yiyun Li * A story rich with the exhilaration of the future, and heavy with the tug of the past. I loved it * Neil Bartlett * A large-hearted, compassionate novel that treats its all characters - male and female, gay and straight - with affection and sympathy. Sandip Roy illuminates truths about the loneliness of immigration and the perils and comforts of homecoming in this marvelous first novel * Thrity Umrigar, author of The Space Between Us and The Story Hour * This magnificent novel, through its many viewpoints and stories, builds a composite portrait of three unforgettable characters and of the times they live in - times that shape their destinies in very different ways * Shyam Selvadurai, author of Funny Boy and The Hungry Ghosts * Roy cleverly captures a world where change and stagnation coexist. He dramatizes inequality in India and takes an ironic view of the myth of American freedom. His prose has a patient, lived-in quality and his novel reads like the word of somebody who has thought deeply about the most effective way to tell this story * Independent * [A] sensual debut novel ... As it gathers pace after a somewhat slow start, you will not want to put it down * The Lady * It's an absorbing portrait of modern India and a tender tale of the ties that bind * Stylist * Don't Let Him Know captures the heart of modern Indian life and is masterful at demonstrating the mystery behind all families. I for one had wider eyes for reading it * Stylist *
