"The most promising debut I've read in decades." --Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Our Country Friends

"A genuine and offbeat talent . . . like the writers Ottessa Moshfegh and Tony Tulathimutte, [Bansinath] is dialed in to the aesthetics of disgust." --the New York Times

From a brilliant new voice in fiction, a darkly comic and moving story about death, life, and community in a South Asian suburban enclave of New Jersey.

When Matthew Pillai is found dead, slumped over the wheel of his BMW, the women of Willow Road are roped into the investigation of their friend's death.

At the center of the case are the Sharmas--Anita, a widow whose late husband introduced Matthew to the neighborhood, and her boundary-pushing daughter, Leila, who called him Uncle. To Anita, who has been in freefall since her arrival in the United States as a young woman, Matthew's presence offered hope, including a promise of betterment for Leila. The truth, however, is far stranger.

In this darkly funny debut, the women of Willow Road find that despite their internecine quarrels, casual backstabbing, and generational feuds, in the end, there is no one to turn to but each other.