Winner of the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award
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 fiancÈe 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.
"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
