The New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of
Secret Daughter returns with an unforgettable story of family,
responsibility, love, honor, tradition, and identity, in which two
childhood friends--a young doctor and a newly married bride--must
balance the expectations of their culture and their families with the
desires of their own hearts.
The first of his family to go to college, Anil Patel, the golden son,
carries the weight of tradition and his family's expectations when he
leaves his tiny Indian village to begin a medical residency in Dallas,
Texas, at one of the busiest and most competitive hospitals in America.
When his father dies, Anil becomes the de facto head of the Patel
household and inherits the mantle of arbiter for all of the village's
disputes. But he is uneasy with the custom, uncertain that he has the
wisdom and courage demonstrated by his father and grandfather. His
doubts are compounded by the difficulties he discovers in adjusting to a
new culture and a new job, challenges that will shake his confidence in
himself and his abilities.
Back home in India, Anil's closest childhood friend, Leena, struggles to
adapt to her demanding new husband and relatives. Arranged by her
parents, the marriage shatters Leena's romantic hopes, and eventually
forces her to make a desperate choice that will hold drastic
repercussions for herself and her family. Though Anil and Leena struggle
to come to terms with their identities thousands of miles apart, their
lives eventually intersect once more--changing them both and the people
they love forever.
Tender and bittersweet, The Golden Son illuminates the ambivalence of
people caught between past and present, tradition and modernity, duty
and choice; the push and pull of living in two cultures, and the painful
decisions we must make to find our true selves.
