Fans of Namrata Patel’s Scent of a Garden will melt for Grishma Shah’s characters as they confront their pasts and must find a way to both the Indian and the American Dream under the shadow of terrorism.

When Aanya arrives in India, ready for a new beginning, she is in awe of the glitz and glamour of expat living. But on her very first day, in the still of her apartment, tears salt her welcome cake. The cake is supposed to be a celebration, a symbol of her career accomplishments, a salute to her triumphs—and yet she has never felt more alone, not even on her darkest days.

Luckily, when she pitches her work to Abhimanyu, the self-made, down-to-earth Director of Events at the Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai, he is charmed. But before Aanya can find the strength to reciprocate, she is thrust into reconciling her past: a coming of age at a roadside motel in Georgia, where her Indian-immigrant parents and their best friends manifest the American dream by turning over a thirty-four-room motel as their children, Aanya and Ayaan, develop a bond and fate as entwined as their anagrammed names. Now, in Mumbai, thousands of miles from home, can the fear of another loss help Aanya move forward?

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