The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing

A Novel

By: Mira Jacob

Narrated by: Mira Jacob

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A winning, irreverent debut novel about a family wrestling with its future and its past

“With wit and a rich understanding of human foibles, [Mira] Jacob unspools a story that will touch your heart.”—People

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Boston Globe, The Millions, Kirkus Reviews

With depth, heart, and agility, debut novelist Mira Jacob takes us on a deftly plotted journey that ranges from 1970s India to suburban 1980s New Mexico to Seattle during the dot.com boom. The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing is an epic, irreverent testimony to the bonds of love, the pull of hope, and the power of making peace with life’s uncertainties.

Celebrated brain surgeon Thomas Eapen has been sitting on his porch, talking to dead relatives. At least that is the story his wife, Kamala, prone to exaggeration, tells their daughter, Amina, a photographer living in Seattle.

Reluctantly Amina returns home and finds a situation that is far more complicated than her mother let on, with roots in a trip the family, including Amina’s rebellious brother Akhil, took to India twenty years earlier. Confronted by Thomas’s unwillingness to explain himself, strange looks from the hospital staff, and a series of puzzling items buried in her mother’s garden, Amina soon realizes that the only way she can help her father is by coming to terms with her family’s painful past. In doing so, she must reckon with the ghosts that haunt all of the Eapens.

Gateway listen!

Any additional comments?

This is the first time I've listened to a full-length fiction title. I listen to tons of podcasts, and I've listened to autobiographies and Freakonomics-style nonfiction, but never a novel. h/t to Laura Hogensen for the rec, and she was right - the author does an excellent job with the voices, and I found myself taking the long way home just so I could listen for a few extra blocks. If you've ever wondered if audiobooks are for you, this should be your gateway listen!

One of the best books I have read in a long time

I read a review after reading this book that said that the author pulls the reader into every nuance of Amina's life. The depth of character in this book is alarming and wonderful.

One of my all-time favorites!

Just finished listening to this book and it was amazing. Great story and great narration. I didn't want it to end!

One of My Top 5 Reads

This was the first audiobook that I came across and rated 5 stars across the board. The narration brings the story alive in a way that reading it from the page could never do. The story is a wonderful if not somewhat disturbing glimpse into the dynamics of a cross-cultural family. It is beautiful, and touching and real.

beautiful & delicious

Great story and best imagery. Made me want to look for the nearest Indian food restaurant!