The Magnificent Ruins
In this "rare feast" of a novel, a young Indian American book editor inherits her estranged family's ancestral home-and their long-buried secrets (Rachel Lyon, author of Self-Portrait With Boy). It is the summer of 2015, and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in India, informing her that she's inherited her family's sprawling estate, she must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago. Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother after a decade of estrangement, and then there are her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom still live in the house, all of whom resent her sudden inheritance. To make matters more complicated, her first boyfriend seeks her out when she arrives, and her star author--and occasional lover--is suddenly determined to make things serious. As Lila tries to come to terms with both past and present, long-suppressed secrets from her family emerge, culminating in an act of shocking violence, and she must finally reckon with her inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface. Wise, witty, and deeply moving, The Magnificent Ruins is an utterly addictive read and a stunning debut.
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Community Reviews
I really enjoyed this messy, multigenerational family drama that touched on so many different aspects of life that it didn't matter that I don't share the ethnicity and cultural background of the family. Lila returns home to Kolkata following the death of her beloved maternal grandfather, to deal with the estate that he has unceremoniously left to her instead of her mother or uncle. The family waivers between heartwarming love for and backstabbing hatred of one another and Lila must walk a fine line between respect of her grandfather's wishes and respect of the family still living in the house.
The story's dual timeline goes between various life events in the past of multiple characters, and present-day 2015. Mostly the flashbacks were fine, and even historically informative. However, sometimes I found my mind wandering during those chapters.
Lila's struggle with being too much of one culture to fit into another is something that I can personally relate to, and there were quite a few times when I found myself talking to the book (a good sign). However, I didn't love aspects of Lila's character; she made some questionable choices and was sometimes quite unfair to her mother (in my opinion). But then again, that is what drove the drama that I was eating up with a spoon.
