Sorry for the inconvenience A memoir

An author's journey to publication is often forged through unbridled grit, though rarely as much grit as Farah Naz Rishi has needed. This memoir is incredibly unputdownable--readers will leave it breathless and in awe of Rishi's clarity and strength. Growing up Pakistani and Muslim in America shaped Rishi's early life and her initial plans of graduating college and becoming a lawyer. Her parents were high achievers and expected the same from Rishi and her brother. But this memoir is not the story of how Rishi abandoned law for literature, nor the story of how she ended up in a convenience-based marriage with her best friend, Stephen, though those things both happened. This memoir is about the fragility of life: what we gain and what we lose through unexpected tragedy. Rishi is honest about the ravages of cancer, the invisible pain of mental illness, complicated health care, and falling victim to financial predators in the wake of loss. Though not all readers will share her journey as an author or her experiences as an older sister, all will be endlessly grateful to Rishi for sharing so generously her experiences of the beautiful contradictions of family, especially readers with sick or dying loved ones.

In this openhearted account, Rishi (I Hope You Get This Message) discusses growing up in a Pakistani American family in Pennsylvania, the dissolution of one romantic relationship, and the possible kindling of another. "It's embarrassing to admit," Rishi begins, "but one of the only reasons I decided to take a class at Haverford College was the prospect of meeting a boy." That imperative stemmed largely from a desire to placate her mother, who was crestfallen that the end of Rishi's most recent relationship meant her daughter might not marry young. At Haverford, however, Rishi met Jamaican student Stephen Griffiths, with whom she felt an "inevitable, inexplicable connection." The two became close, leading to a friendship that lasted through Rishi's time at law school and her work in children's publishing in the 2010s. Rishi's attempts to determine whether she wanted Stephen as more than a friend, with all the attendant cultural baggage, forms the spine of the narrative. Fraught family interactions, including her younger brother's struggles to come out as bisexual and her battles of will with her mother, flesh it out. With forthright prose and dashes of acerbic humor, Rishi does justice to the complexities of inchoate affection and cross-cultural clashes. It's powerful stuff. Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc. (July)