The Golden Son

The large and small struggles that make up everyday life are woven into an international family saga in Gowda's latest novel. After a doctor works the small miracle of surgically fixing a child's cleft lip at a mobile clinic in western India, 10-year-old Anil Patel and his father agree that he should become a doctor. That decision later carries Anil far from his family's farm to a medical internship in Dallas, Tex. As Anil settles into American life with all the fixings, including an American girlfriend, his loved ones in India are trapped by their traditions. Worst off is Anil's childhood friend Leena, who's caught in an abusive marriage and constrained by cultural expectations of women. Anil must reckon with these issues when his father dies and he takes on familial duties while keeping up with his American medical program. Straddling two worlds, Anil finds it difficult to fit into either. Like Gowda's bestselling debut novel, Secret Daughter, this new book offers readers vivid cultural immersion. Even if the outcome is predictable, with the ends tied up a bit too neatly, the journey to get there is deeply pleasurable. Agent: Ayesha Pande, Pande Literary. (Oct.)