At first glance, Sam and Aliya are the perfect picture of a modern American couple; the two women live in a suburban home in Ohio and have been married for several years. Ali, an Indian-American entrepreneur, runs her own successful interior design business while Sam is a college professor. Their lives are abruptly changed however, when Sam disappears the morning after a heated fight between the two, and Ali is forced to reckon with her disappearance. In the days that follow, Ali's forced to confront her growing worry and shame, and is unprepared for the public backlash that follows. In the weeks that follow, her neighbors and clients begin to suspect her involvement in her wife's disappearance, a fact exacerbated by the fact she's a gay Muslim woman.

The novel alternates between Sam's and Ali's perspectives, giving insight into Sam's imprisonment at the hands of an unknown captor, until two months later when Sam is found. The trauma and abuse she's suffered in that time comes to light, and makes Sam and Aliya question their future together - but in that time, both women find support and solace in their estranged families.

I'm thoroughly impressed with how much Thrity Umrigar packed into this novel, as she focuses on the many struggles of the immigrant experience in the US, compounded with the ostracization of being gay and Muslim. it wasn't until the latter half of the novel where she highlights Sam's and Ali's backgrounds and their own struggles - Ali, still struggling to accept her father's remarriage to an Indian stepmother and the weighty traditions and expectations that frown upon her marriage; Sam, trying to move past a childhood with an abusive father who has been diagnosed with dementia, and the obligation her mother still feels to him - that I felt more invested in the novel. I appreciated as well the shift of the novel to India at onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ways that (recent) global event changed so many lives.

This is a compelling and emotional novel, and one that I'm excited to see published in January 2026!

Thrity Umrigar’s Missing Sam is both a domestic thriller and social commentary. The novel begins with a familiar but charged scene: a married couple, Aliya and Sam, attend a party where an ongoing argument rises to the surface. Their fight later that night is heated and unresolved. The next morning, Sam goes for a run to clear her head and never returns.

From there, the story splits in two. Aliya, a gay Muslim, finds herself trapped. She is the grieving partner but also the police's prime suspect. The novel explores how her identity places her under a spotlight from neighbors, police, and even friends as her every move is looked on with suspicion. Scared, angry, and isolated, she begins making desperate choices. At the same time, Sam is alive but imprisoned, her chapters filled with dread as she wonders if rescue will come in time.

Missing Sam is not simply a thriller about a disappearance. It is also a chilling meditation on how race, religion, and sexuality shape assumptions about guilt and innocence. The book asks whether true safety and belonging are ever possible for those who live at the margins. Missing Sam is both a gripping mystery and a profound exploration of what it means to live under constant suspicion in America today. #algonquinbooks #missingsam #thrityumrigar