AMERICA FOR BEGINNERS

After Pival loses both her husband and her son to sudden death, she makes the surprising decision to leave her home in Kolkata, India, to travel across America in hopes of understanding what her son loved about his adopted country. Narrator Soneela Nankani handily meets the principal challenge of this audiobook: rendering the characters' variety of accents and different levels of proficiency with English. Through a New York agency specializing in Indian tourists, Pival hires a young American woman to serve as a companion and a male Bangladeshi tour guide; the trio has little in common except that each faces an uncertain future. As the journey unfolds, Nankani's delivery reflects the group's developing ease with each other as well as their inner growth and self-discovery. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2018]