The St. Lawrence Book Award Winner

$21.95

In stock

ISBN: 978-1-62557-049-9
Request a Review/Exam Copy

Complete only if requesting a physical review/exam copy. While we can only send physical copies to addresses within the US, reviewers and educators outside the US are welcome to request an e-galley (PDF). (See check boxes below.)

Check as many boxes as apply.

While filling out this form is not a guarantee you will receive a review/exam copy, we are happy to consider your request. E-galleys are typically available about 1-2 months prior to a book’s publication date, and physical review/exam copies are available shortly before publication.

Boomtown Girl

Publication Date: April 2023

Description

Winner of the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award

“…(Sunder’s) expressive style depicts lives cocooned in uncertainty and loneliness, novelty and longing.”– Kirkus

Set entirely in the Bangalore region of South India, Boomtown Girl explores the ambitions, delusions, and struggles of people navigating a rapidly developing city. A rebellious teenager and her workaholic father confront their mutual distrust while dining at a newly opened Pizza Hut; a tailor nostalgic for his past glory in the employ of an Englishman grows obsessed with an American customer; a techie, his fiancée having broken off their engagement, takes a young, eager intern into his confidence. These stories trace Bangalore’s warp-speed transformation from a leafy backwater into India’s Silicon Valley—a place where Digital Age values clash with tradition, where British colonialism casts its strong shadow, and where visions are inspired and distorted by the forces of globalization.

Praise

Boomtown Girl is a volume of finely wrought stories. Shubha Sunder writes with such intelligence, grace and care that the common, ordinary lives depicted in these stories are dignified. This is a moving and necessary book.

-Ha Jin

A sure-footed, magisterial and magical collection of stories.

-E.C. Osondu

Boomtown Girl charts the transformation of Bangalore and its environs, in all its grit and glitter. In virtuoistic and vital prose, Shubha Sunder’s nine stories bring indelible characters to life, portraying their hopes, dreams, and despair. A compelling debut.

-Vanessa Hua

In Boomtown Girl, the immensely talented Shubha Sunder takes us into the heart of Bangalore society in the 1990s, a decade of great change. With writing that sparkles and flares, we become privy to individuals’ deepest striving and disappointment, their utterly relatable yearnings to burst beyond restrictions and to belong. I could read these fresh characters and their captivating stories for hours.
-Jennifer Acker

About the Author

Shubha Sunder

Shubha Sunder’s stories and essays have appeared in New Letters, The Common, Narrative Magazine, Michigan Quarterly Review, Catapult, Crazyhorse, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship and the City of Boston Artist Fellowship. Her fiction has received honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories anthology and been shortlisted for The Flannery O’Connor Award, The Hudson Prize, and The New American Fiction Prize. She teaches creative writing at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and at GrubStreet.

Visit Author Page