What a Happy Family

By: Saumya Dave

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

"A full, big hearted novel.” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times best-selling author of Daisy Jones & the Six)

Nestled in the suburbs of Atlanta, a family learns the funniest punchlines can hide the hardest truths in this evocative women’s fiction novel from the author of Well-Behaved Indian Women.

From the outside, the Joshi family is the quintessential Indian American family. Decades ago, Bina and Deepak immigrated to America, where she became a pillar of their local Indian community and he a successful psychiatrist. Their eldest daughter, Suhani, is following the footsteps of her father’s career and happily married. Natasha, their middle daughter, is about to become engaged to the son of longtime family friends. And Anuj, their son - well, he’s a son, and what could be better than that?

But a family scandal shows that nothing is as it seems. Bina’s oldest friendship starts to unravel, and she finds herself as an outsider in the community she helped build. Suhani discovers that her perfect marriage isn’t as solid as she thought. Natasha faces a series of rejections that send her into a downward spiral.

As they encounter public humiliation, gossiping aunties, and self-doubt, the Joshi family must rely on each other like never before. But sometimes, family has to fall apart in order to come back stronger than before.

©2021 Saumya Dave (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“A wise and moving portrait of an Indian-American family. Saumya Dave renders the Joshi family with such warmth and tenderness - yet never shies away from the complicated truths. A full, big hearted novel.” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times best-selling author of Daisy Jones & the Six)

“In her wonderful follow up to Well-Behaved Indian Women, Saumya Dave is quickly becoming a go-to author for complex stories of love, relationships and family, all told with her now trademark humor and heart.” (Allison Winn Scotch, best-selling author of Cleo McDougal Regrets Nothing)

"Dave writes insightful, compelling characters who readers fall in with and root for on their journeys balancing love, family, mental health, careers, and belonging. What a Happy Family is a vivid portrait of family life and I was captivated by the stories of the Joshi clan from the very first page." (Sonya Lalli, author of Serena Singh Flips the Script)

Great audiobook

Loved the way the story progeessed and the dynamic between the different characters and how complex family dynamics can be. The narration at time is a little annoying especially the characters of Natasha and Allison at times. Sounds very whiney. All the other characters sounded believable. Can't wait to hear the next audiobook by this author.

A little disappointed

Possibly the audio version did not translate as well as the written but there was a lack of sophistication.m; and in several places the story seemed trite and simplistic.

Loved it!

A wonderful story of family, and how the secrets we keep to protect are better shared!

a must read for everyone!!

I couldn't put this down!! My poor to do list was ignored for days! The story and the characters are incredibly relatable, because they all have different internal struggles and I'm sure you'll related to one or more of them in many ways. This book really also helped me think about so different issues...it's very thought provoking. Can't go wrong with one!!

Unfortunately, not my favorite.

Regarding narration - I'm not sure why the narrator always sounds incredulous; sometimes for basic sentences. A line might be "she grabbed her lunch😐 " but the tone would be more like "she grabbed her lunch 😒😕", as if this was unbelievable. It made sense in some areas, but was otherwise irritating.

I hate quitting a book once I've started it, and that is the main reason I was able to finish. I got through it by imagining the detailed review I would leave, but given the positive tone of the vast majority, I'll just say that I felt like the story dragged and I had a hard time rooting for the main character.