A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness

Reviews

A Good Housekeeping Book Club Pick of the Month
One of The New Yorker's Best Books of the Year

“The first story in Jai Chakrabarti’s exquisite collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, is hard to top . . . As impeccable as that title story is, every entry astonishes. Whether the setting is India or the United States (often Brooklyn, where the author lives), there is a universality to the characters’ concerns . . . Among the many ways in which Chakrabarti demonstrates a mastery of the form is that each tale feels immersive and complete, yet leaves a reader wanting more.” —Leigh Haber, The New York Times

"In 15 touching, heartfelt and vividly painted stories, characters grapple with the meaning of family and all the complications that arise within those units in all of their beautiful permutations. You'll laugh, cry and gasp with surprise and wonder as you read about a closeted a gay man who seeks to have a child with his lover's wife, an Indian woman balancing her cultural identity with that of her Jewish fiancé and a young woman who travels from India to the states to care for a biracial couple's toddler. Brew a cup of something cozy and settle in for an array of tales about families that may even challenge you to reflect on your own." —Good Housekeeping

“These are beautiful stories, sometimes wrenching, sometimes redeeming, always pulling us into unexpected spaces—of the world, of the human heart. Chakrabarti is an accomplished and insightful writer.” —Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, best-selling author of The Last Queen and The Forest of Enchantments

“Jai Chakrabarti is an elegant writer with clarity of vision and greatness of heart. His new book expands the world in some mysterious way.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The House of Broken Angels

"The fifteen stories in this collection, set variously in America and India, are propelled by familial anxieties. Chakrabarti’s characters—diverse in race, class, sexuality, and religion—reveal themselves through longings . . . These tales eschew neat conclusions, leaving their protagonists suspended, as one opines of life itself, 'between unbearable truths—salvation or suffering.'" —The New Yorker

“Chakrabarti follows up his piercingly inventive National Jewish Book Award winner, A Play for the End of the World, with a story collection featuring characters who bravely follow their heart’s desire toward big life changes.” —Library Journal

“Throughout the collection, Chakrabarti illustrates the challenges and rewards of raising children, and asks big questions about the definition of family.” —Time
 
“From National Jewish Book award-winning author Jai Chakrabarti, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a short story collection you won’t be able to put down.” —HeyAlma

“A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a gift. Through stories that capture the depths and expanse of love, longing, faith, and identity, Jai Chakrabarti brilliantly illuminates the moments—big and small—that define our shared humanity. Poignant, incandescent, and unforgettable.” —Qian Julie Wang, New York Times best-selling author of Beautiful Country

“Jai Chakrabarti offers real magic with A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, opening worlds upon worlds with each sentence. To follow him is to succumb to the pure joy of disappearing into a book completely.” —Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk
 
“A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is a tender, exquisite blessing of a book, from an author whose compassion, wit and imagination feel as vast as the world itself. Whether in Brooklyn, Kolkata, upstate New York or elsewhere, these characters captured my heart and endure in my memory like loved ones.” —Mia Alvar, author of In the Country
 
“With a poet’s sense of compression and a wonderful feel for the catastrophic gaps that can open up between countries, people, and behaviors, Jai Chakrabarthi’s A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness is essential reading for its title story alone. It is a moving, immersive, timely collection about what we hear and don’t hear when we try to talk to one another.” —Jonathan Lee, author of High Dive and The Great Mistake

“I meant to read only the first story of Jai Chakrabarti’s masterful collection, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, but the characters quickly swept me away. They linger and charm, find and refuse their happinesses, parent themselves and others in endless, enigmatic ways. This is a collection that turns on breathtaking mettle and heart-rending delicacy. I can’t imagine a reader  who wouldn’t find something precious in these pages.” —Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Parakeet and Safe as Houses

“Lush, immersive stories set in India and America about people trying to make families . . . Beautiful, thought-provoking work about the costs of wanting children.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Finely wrought characters grapple with culture clash, marital strife, and the troubles of parenthood in Chakrabarti’s impressive collection . . . Throughout, Chakrabarti builds complicated and intriguing emotional situations, and his disquieting, unresolved endings leave the atmosphere unspoiled. This is a satisfying, vibrant exploration of family and identity.” —Publishers Weekly

"Chakrabarti's moving book of short stories puts familial love to the test. Characters struggle with spouses, racial conflict, and, mostly, choices about their children . . . Not one for neat endings, Chakrabarti puts the impetus on readers to decide the consequences of characters' actions and where their fates lie. It's an affecting technique for a captivating collection." —Booklist Expand reviews