MAKING HER DEBUT
And Laughter Fell From the Sky, the debut novel by Jyotsna Sreenivasan, is about two young Indian-Americans trying to find love and their place in the world, The synopsis says: "Beautiful, sophisticated Rasika has always tried to play the role of dutiful daughter. Even though she has a career that allows her to be financially independent, she still lives at home and knows she will someday marry an appropriate suitor her family will pick out. With her 26th birthday fast approaching - the age her horoscopes ordain she must find a husband - she agrees to an arranged marriage, all while trying to hide from her family her occasional dalliances with other men. Abhay is everything an Indian-American son shouldn't be. Smart, curious, and ridden with angst, he spent his post-college year in a commune, only to leave and hop from various dead-end jobs, brooding about his inability to find what he wants to do with his life. Old family friends, Rasika and Abhay seem to have nothing in common, and yet when the two reconnect by chance, sparks immediately fly. Abhay loves Rasika, but he knows her family would never approve. Rasika knows she has feelings for Abhay, but can she turn her back on the family rules she has always tried so hard to live by? The search to find answers takes Abhay and Rasika out of their native Ohio, to Oregon and India, where, in the process of trying to find themselves, they find that what they have together might just be something worth fighting for."