Late Bloomers

(Paperback)

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An IndianAmericanfamily is turned upside down when the parents split up thirty-six years into their arranged marriage_x200B_in this witty, big-hearted debut. "Equal parts funny and heartbreaking, Late Bloomers is a charming story about starting over, stumbling, and finding yourself at any age."-Jennifer Close, author of Marrying the Ketchups "I have a soft spot for underdogs. And late bloomers. You've told me a lot of things about yourself, so let me tell you something about me." After thirty-six years of a dutiful but unhappyarrangedmarriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn-until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger womanwho seems to be smitten with him.Lata is enjoying her newfoundindependence,butshe's caught off guard when a professor in his early sixties starts to flirt with her. Meanwhile,Suresh and Lata's daughter, Priya, thinks her father's online pursuits are distasteful even as sheembarks upona clandestine affair of her own.Andtheir son,Nikesh,pretends at a seemingly perfectmarriagewith his law-firm colleague and their young son, but hides the truth of what his relationship really entails.Over the course of three weeks in August, the whole family will uncover one another's secrets, confront the limits of love and loyalty, and explore life's second chances. Charming, funny, and moving, Late Bloomers introducesa delightful new voice in fiction with the story of four individuals trying to understand how to be happy in their own lives-and as a family.

Reviews

Bloomers, at times laugh-out-loud funny and at times quietly heartbreaking, is an intricate novel about people who rediscover themselves. Or perhaps, by being honest with themselves and with each other, discover themselves for the very first time.Shelf Awareness

Late Bloomers follows the lives of a South IndianAmerican familyas they deal with love in all its permutations: marital, romantic, familial, lost, unrequited. Deepa Varadarajan deftly weaves modern-day problems like internet dating and complicated living arrangements with the eternal yearning for acceptance and the ageless desire to live up to family expectations.Secrets, relationships, and food; there is truly nothing more you could ask for in a novel.Katherine Heiny, author of Early Morning Riser and Games and Rituals

Late Bloomers is about love won and lost and rearranged and rediscovered; it is about how love and family can be made and remade;it is about the marvelous fluidity of love. Varadarajan writes about the everyday life of the Raman family with so much humor and affection that she makes the ordinary feel extraordinary.I adore this family and I adore this book.Whitney Otto, author of How to Make an American Quilt

Deepa Varadarajans debut novel isfunny,heartbreaking, engrossing, surprising, and smart. Late Bloomers tells the story of the Raman family, beginning after the children have grown up. I never knew what would happen next and I absolutely lovedthat aboutthis beautifulbook.Marcy Dermansky, author of Hurricane Girl and Very Nice

A stirring, tender novel about the bonds and binds between families and strangers. Varadarajan poignantly delivers a page-turner in which both the young and the not so young have to reconfigure expectations and forge new pathways in order to find fulfillment. LateBloomers asks what it means to be a familya happy familyin a rapidly changing world, and offers promising answers.Soniah Kamal, author of Unmarriageable

Varadarajan has written her characters with intelligence and compassion, imbuing them with complexity . . . Warm, hopeful, often charming. The Ramans are an idiosyncratic oasis in the world of literary unhappy families.Kirkus Reviews

Varadarajan debuts with an endearing exploration of an Indian American familys search for new beginnings. . . . These strong voices leave an indelible mark.Publishers Weekly

Readers looking for new fictional friends to cherishwill be smitten with the Ramans from page one.Booklist

Author Bio

Deepa Varadarajan lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children. She is a legal academic and a graduate of Yale Law School. She grew up in Texas and received her BA from the University of Texas at Austin. Her short fiction has appeared in The Georgia Review and Colorado Review, and her legal scholarship has appeared in The Yale Law Journal and many other publications. Late Bloomers is her first novel.