THE MUSEUM OF FAILURES

An Indian man living in Ohio returns to Bombay for the first time since his beloved father’s death.

After struggling with infertility, Remy Wadia and his wife, Kathy, have a stroke of luck: a relative of one of Remy’s closest friends from childhood is pregnant and wants to give the baby up for adoption. Remy arrives in India to meet the young woman only to find she wants to keep her baby. That’s not the only disappointment waiting for him. His mother, with whom he has a thorny relationship, is in the hospital fighting for her life. These events rock Remy to his core, sending him into a tailspin of grief, bewilderment, nostalgia, displacement, and guilt. At risk of losing his mother, Remy discovers a family secret that upends everything he thought he knew about her and his father, transforming the notion of the man he thought he was and wants to be. Being both at home—meaning Bombay, the city where he was born and raised—and away from home—meaning Columbus, the smaller city where he’s made a life for himself as an adult—is challenging, but it offers him the opportunity to unpack the revelations from the past as well as think about what he wants for his future. Umrigar knows how to tell a story. A former journalist and the author of nine previous novels, she creates interesting characters and complex relationships, builds thematic tension and narrative suspense, and delivers emotionally resonant moments at just the right pace. The book isn’t perfect. The dialogue often feels pedantic, as do some of Remy’s internal soliloquies about the differences and parallels between the U.S. and India. But these shortcomings are a small price to pay for an otherwise rich, heartfelt novel.

This is a touching story about what it really means to grow up and into an authentic life.