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.
