The Best Possible Experience: Stories by Nishanth Injam

 

Injam captures the heartache of immigration without sappiness and includes ample doses of  dark humor. In the story “Summers of Waiting,” a granddaughter returns to India from Chicago to care for her elderly grandfather, whose life is ravaged by guilt. In “The Protocol,” an Indian immigrant and a down-on-her-luck Black woman agree to marry to get a green card in exchange for money. Humor abounds as well: All hell breaks loose when 12-year-old Vikas invites his classmate over for lunch, completely befuddling his poor parents. Filled with sharp  humor and unafraid of humanity’s dark underbelly, this is a promising debut.