Amina Eapen has always been an observer: watchful, quiet, with an eye for detail that eventually led her to a career in photography. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she grew up in the shadow of her brilliant but difficult brother, Akhil, until his sudden death left the family reeling.
Now a wedding photographer in Seattle, Amina is struggling to enjoy her work while secretly longing to return to her former photojournalism career. When her mother calls, panicked because Amina's father, Thomas, has begun having long conversations with his dead relatives, Amina is only too happy to escape to her parents' house in Albuquerque. But as the days in her childhood home stretch into weeks, Amina realizes her father isn't simply hallucinating: his visions of deceased family members have their origins in an ill-fated trip to India when Amina was a child.
Thomas has built a successful career as a brain surgeon but feels guilty about having left his home and extended family. When his mother's house is destroyed in a devastating fire, the news opens a deep well of grief that only deepens after his son's death. As his hallucinations worsen, Thomas buries a series of objects in the family garden. Amina, increasingly frightened for her father, must figure out how to reassure him as she navigates her own personal struggles.
Debut novelist Mira Jacob weaves a complex, layered saga of the immigrant experience, deftly illuminating the Eapens' ambivalence toward their homeland. The novel moves back and forth in time, from 1970s India to 1980s New Mexico and late-'90s Seattle. The shifting timeline traces the growth of Amina and Akhil from bickering children to eye-rolling teenagers eager to fit in at their all-white prep school. Their mother, Kamala, deals with her homesickness by cooking elaborate Indian feasts and clinging fiercely to her two best friends, Amina's "aunties." (All three older women cheerfully mangle American idioms to hilarious effect.)
Like many immigrant daughters, Amina is frustrated by her parents' expectations: grudgingly proud of her career success, they still hope she'll marry a good Indian man and settle down. Amina also longs to find love, but first she must deal with her lingering grief. Though at times her watchfulness slides into passivity, Amina quietly begins to take control of her life, even as she recognizes there are some things she can't change.
Heartbreaking and often surprisingly funny, The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is a testament to the deep bonds of family and the importance of gaining the courage to move on. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: This debut novel is a heartbreaking, often wryly funny story of grief, love and complicated relationships in an Indian immigrant family.