Acknowledgments and Thanks
Thanks are due to Susan Hubbard for getting me interested in writing, and Bridget Boland for her crisp edits, patience, and encouragement. Without her, this work would not have been possible. Thanks also to the Atmosphere Press staff, Cheryl Beecham, Megan Turner, Ronaldo and Alex Kale who carried me through this difficult process, and my dear friends Radha Koduri and Sushma Paralikar, who read what I wrote and were gentle but firm in their criticism. Thanks, in no small measure, to my husband Prasad, who has always encouraged me in all sorts of crazy ventures and had immense faith in me, and who tolerated my silent treatment of him while writing the novel.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to all the Indian women who had arranged marriages and came to the USA to join their husbands, traveling ten thousand miles. It is amazing that they set up house with a husband they barely knew, made a life for themselves, and raised a family in a
foreign country. Some were highly educated, and some were not. Some were fine, but a few endured abusive marriages, bound by their
culture. Some took their futures into their own hands. Paru is one of them. This is her story.