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Book Title

Optional Practical Training

Subtitle
A Novel
Author 1
Shubha Sunder
Body
Told as a series of conversations, Optional Practical Training follows Pavitra, a young Indian woman who came to the US for college from Bangalore, India, and graduates in 2006 with a degree in physics. Her student visa grants her an extra twelve months in the country for work experience—a period known as Optional Practical Training—so she takes a position as a math and physics teacher at a private high school near Cambridge, Massachusetts.

What Pavitra really wants, though, is the time and space to finish a novel—to diverge from what’s expected of her within her family of white-collar professionals and to build a life as a writer. Navigating her year of OPT—looking for a room to rent, starting her job—she finds that each person she encounters expects something from her too. As her landlord, colleagues, students, parents of her students, friends of her family, and neighbors talk to and at her, they shape her understanding of race, immigration, privilege, and herself.

Throughout the book, Pavitra seems to speak very rarely; and yet, as she responds to the assumptions, insights, projections, and observations of those around her, a subtle and sophisticated portrait emerges of a young woman and aspiring artist defining a place for herself in the world.

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List Price
$17.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-64445-324-7
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
256
Trim Size
Trim Size
5.5 x 8.25
Keynote
An elegantly inventive debut novel that offers a sharp new take on the immigrant story in post-9/11 America

About the Author

Shubha  Sunder
Credit: Chris McIntosh
Shubha Sunder is the author of Boomtown Girl, a story collection set in her hometown of Bangalore, India, that won the 2021 St. Lawrence Book Award. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, with her family.
More by author

Upcoming Events

Shubha Sunder reading and in conversation about OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING at Brookline Booksmith

Date:
Location:
Brookline Booksmith in Brookline, MAview map
Stay tuned for details. Optional Practical Training will be available for purchase from Brookline Booksmith.

Shubha Sunder reading and in conversation with Koye Oyedeji about OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING at Politics & Prose (Conn Ave)

Date:
Location:
Politics & Prose in Washington, DCview map
Stay tuned for details.

Shubha Sunder reading and in conversation about OPTIONAL PRACTICAL TRAINING at the Center for Fiction

Date:
Location:
Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, NYview map
Stay tuned for details.

Praise

  • Optional Practical Training is as sharp, bright, and subtle as a blade hidden up a sleeve. Before you know it, it has sliced clear through the ether of absurdity that is immigrant life.”—Namwali Serpell
  • “A rich and blazingly layered portrait of a young woman fighting to not only be an artist, but fighting to discover a true sense of herself in a world that has so many ideas about how her life should be. This is a beautiful, and beautifully intimate, quest of a book.”—Paul Yoon
  • “Shubha Sunder’s voice and storytelling are a delight—wry, poignant, and effortlessly engaging. Here is a fresh exploration of the cross-cultural experience. A timely and insightful novel that demands our attention.”—Weike Wang
  • “This story, fundamentally American as well as universal, is told in supple prose, with ease and grace, and gives a great deal of pleasure and insight.”—Ha Jin
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