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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Best Possible Experience: Stories
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 5 reviews on
Nominee:PEN/Faulkner Award -Fiction (2024)
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR - An emotionally rich collection of short stories, painting a fascinating portrait of contemporary India and its diaspora and a yearning rendering of the people and places we call home, from a major new literary talent. "A full-hearted, brilliant debut of necessary beauty." --Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars and New York Times bestseller Friday Black "Injam's stories made me want to cast all else aside and return home." --Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning Vivid, vibrant, and unwaveringly affecting, The Best Possible Experience brings us intimate, impeccably realized accounts of individuals living in one of the most populous countries in the world and in its American diaspora--all haunted, in every sense of the word, by a loss of home. Classically elegant in prose and consistently modern in outlook, Nishanth Injam's stories question what it means to have a home and to return home, and show, above all, that home is not a place so much as it is people who are ready to accept you as you are. We see a young man trapped on a bus on the way to visit his parents as his fellow passengers vanish into the restroom. A family, newly in America, determined to host a perfect luncheon for their son's white classmate--with no idea what to serve him. A woman who returns to a small village in India every summer to visit the grandfather who raised her, a man who lives with the ghosts of his son and his wife. And a man preparing for his green card interview with the American woman he has paid to marry him. A sui generis talent, Injam first started writing after coming to the United States from India in his twenties. The Best Possible Experience, his profoundly personal debut collection, delivers a universal inquiry into the idea of belonging and preserves in writing the home he left behind, before it was lost
Book Details
- Publisher: Pantheon Books
- Publish Date: Jul 11st, 2023
- Pages: 224
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.90in - 1.10in - 0.80lb
- EAN: 9780593317693
- Categories: • Literary• Short Stories (single author)• Cultural Heritage
About the Author
NISHANTH INJAM received an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. He received a PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers and a Cecelia Joyce Johnson Award from the Key West Literary Seminar. His work has appeared in the Virginia Quarterly Review, Zoetrope, The Georgia Review (which won the 2022 ASME Award for Fiction for its publication of his story), Catapult's Best Debut Short Stories 2021, and The Best American Magazine Writing 2022. Raised in Telangana, India, he now lives in Illinois.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
Most Anticipated Book of the Year and of July from Chicago Review of Books
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
An NPR Book of the Week
Publishers Weekly Book of the Week "Stunning...Injam's narratives strike a perfect balance of darkness and light."
--New York Times Book Review "So rich and so beautiful."
--Sacha Pfeiffer, NPR's "Weekend Edition" "Hilarious, heartrending, and wise, Nishanth Injam's stories made me want to cast all else aside and return home."
--Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning "The Best Possible Experience is a full-hearted, brilliant debut full of necessary beauty. Injam writes of longing, of love, of home and of the Indian diaspora, and as one reads the stories, they find that together they create an epic mosaic of life."
--Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black and Chain-Gang All-Stars "In Nishanth Injam's enthralling, deeply intimate stories, characters contend with what it takes to survive grief, heartbreak, disappointment, another culture, and each other. Full of surprises and truly breathtaking moments, this is an exquisite debut!"
--Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies "In these wise, intricate stories, Nishanth Injam shows us, with lancing clarity, the shame and embarrassment of immigration, the ways in which relationships form and dissolve around silences. His is an arresting new voice in contemporary Indian--and American--fiction."
--Karan Mahajan, author of Association of Small Bombs "The stories in The Best Possible Experience paint a gorgeous and devastating portrait of what it costs, literally and psychically, to make a new life away from home. Nishanth Injam has a gift for capturing complex characters facing the unsettling strangeness of unfamiliar places and increasingly unfamiliar selves. This is a graceful and sophisticated debut from a wonderful new writer."
--Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
"These hauntingly beautiful stories of arrivals and departures, of love and loss, are a reminder of the transporting power of fiction. The Best Possible Experience is quite possibly the best debut collection of the year."
--Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself "An emotionally rich collection of short stories that paint a fascinating portrait of contemporary India and its diaspora. Nishanth Injam's stories prod at our understanding of home and departure with a classical elegance and modern eye. Beautiful at both the individual and collective levels, The Best Possible Experience is truly a profound debut."
--Chicago Review of Books, "12 Must Read Books of July 2023"
"Alive with vivid, vibrant, and affecting writing...powerful portrait...This collection is truly a can't-miss release."
--Chicago Review of Books, "The Most Anticipated Chicago Books of 2023" "Injam's sparse language and attention to detail render the subtlest conflicts with tenderness and care...We witness a spectrum of social classes, castes, religions, and other identities clashing and interacting in these short stories. Just as there is no one way to be Indian, Injam demonstrates that there is no one way to depict the tenuous relationship between home and migration, or between necessary phases of growth and change."
--Chicago Review of Books, "Transition as Entry Point in The Best Possible Experience" "Stunning...The Best Possible Experience is not just a story collection about immigration or immigrants, but about our capacity to feel, to tap into the deepest parts of ourselves, and an exploration of what we find in those depths."
--Chicago Review of Books, "The Oceans Inside of You: A Conversation with Nishanth Injam" "Dynamic and insightful...Injam succeeds in equal measure with the variety of styles, and he offers enriching details about the various experiences his characters face as immigrants and offshore workers. This is a triumph."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Perceptive and penetrating...A quietly powerful look at a fundamental human desire--for a sense of home, a place to belong...Injam compares and contrasts his many characters, their situations and experiences--specifically, what constitutes home for them and how they cope. Masterful descriptions convey their heart-rending memories and hard-hitting emotions. An enlightening collection full of cultural and societal insights, The Best Possible Experience is a must for readers who loved Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Samanta Schweblin's Seven Empty Houses."
--BookPage, starred review "Eleven gems make up Injam's stellar debut short-story collection showcasing exquisite quotidian beauty haunted by seemingly inevitable loss..."The Best Possible Experience," which proves to be exactly what Injam provides lucky readers."
--Booklist, starred review "Vivid examples of the emotional price relocation extracts from individuals leaving their homes for better prospects...What marks this well-crafted collection of stories as special is its candidness, as well as, the maturity of the author's voice."
--Money Control "Meticulously crafted narratives...Eloquent meditations on grief...An array of characters and circumstances that capture contemporary concerns with grace; the language, well-rendered details, and strong story structures combine to deliver revelations. Injam's title story, in particular, is a testament to his command of the short form."
--Kirkus
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
An NPR Book of the Week
Publishers Weekly Book of the Week "Stunning...Injam's narratives strike a perfect balance of darkness and light."
--New York Times Book Review "So rich and so beautiful."
--Sacha Pfeiffer, NPR's "Weekend Edition" "Hilarious, heartrending, and wise, Nishanth Injam's stories made me want to cast all else aside and return home."
--Megha Majumdar, author of A Burning "The Best Possible Experience is a full-hearted, brilliant debut full of necessary beauty. Injam writes of longing, of love, of home and of the Indian diaspora, and as one reads the stories, they find that together they create an epic mosaic of life."
--Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times-bestselling author of Friday Black and Chain-Gang All-Stars "In Nishanth Injam's enthralling, deeply intimate stories, characters contend with what it takes to survive grief, heartbreak, disappointment, another culture, and each other. Full of surprises and truly breathtaking moments, this is an exquisite debut!"
--Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies "In these wise, intricate stories, Nishanth Injam shows us, with lancing clarity, the shame and embarrassment of immigration, the ways in which relationships form and dissolve around silences. His is an arresting new voice in contemporary Indian--and American--fiction."
--Karan Mahajan, author of Association of Small Bombs "The stories in The Best Possible Experience paint a gorgeous and devastating portrait of what it costs, literally and psychically, to make a new life away from home. Nishanth Injam has a gift for capturing complex characters facing the unsettling strangeness of unfamiliar places and increasingly unfamiliar selves. This is a graceful and sophisticated debut from a wonderful new writer."
--Danielle Evans, author of The Office of Historical Corrections
"These hauntingly beautiful stories of arrivals and departures, of love and loss, are a reminder of the transporting power of fiction. The Best Possible Experience is quite possibly the best debut collection of the year."
--Peter Ho Davies, author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself "An emotionally rich collection of short stories that paint a fascinating portrait of contemporary India and its diaspora. Nishanth Injam's stories prod at our understanding of home and departure with a classical elegance and modern eye. Beautiful at both the individual and collective levels, The Best Possible Experience is truly a profound debut."
--Chicago Review of Books, "12 Must Read Books of July 2023"
"Alive with vivid, vibrant, and affecting writing...powerful portrait...This collection is truly a can't-miss release."
--Chicago Review of Books, "The Most Anticipated Chicago Books of 2023" "Injam's sparse language and attention to detail render the subtlest conflicts with tenderness and care...We witness a spectrum of social classes, castes, religions, and other identities clashing and interacting in these short stories. Just as there is no one way to be Indian, Injam demonstrates that there is no one way to depict the tenuous relationship between home and migration, or between necessary phases of growth and change."
--Chicago Review of Books, "Transition as Entry Point in The Best Possible Experience" "Stunning...The Best Possible Experience is not just a story collection about immigration or immigrants, but about our capacity to feel, to tap into the deepest parts of ourselves, and an exploration of what we find in those depths."
--Chicago Review of Books, "The Oceans Inside of You: A Conversation with Nishanth Injam" "Dynamic and insightful...Injam succeeds in equal measure with the variety of styles, and he offers enriching details about the various experiences his characters face as immigrants and offshore workers. This is a triumph."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Perceptive and penetrating...A quietly powerful look at a fundamental human desire--for a sense of home, a place to belong...Injam compares and contrasts his many characters, their situations and experiences--specifically, what constitutes home for them and how they cope. Masterful descriptions convey their heart-rending memories and hard-hitting emotions. An enlightening collection full of cultural and societal insights, The Best Possible Experience is a must for readers who loved Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Samanta Schweblin's Seven Empty Houses."
--BookPage, starred review "Eleven gems make up Injam's stellar debut short-story collection showcasing exquisite quotidian beauty haunted by seemingly inevitable loss..."The Best Possible Experience," which proves to be exactly what Injam provides lucky readers."
--Booklist, starred review "Vivid examples of the emotional price relocation extracts from individuals leaving their homes for better prospects...What marks this well-crafted collection of stories as special is its candidness, as well as, the maturity of the author's voice."
--Money Control "Meticulously crafted narratives...Eloquent meditations on grief...An array of characters and circumstances that capture contemporary concerns with grace; the language, well-rendered details, and strong story structures combine to deliver revelations. Injam's title story, in particular, is a testament to his command of the short form."
--Kirkus