Seeking Fortune Elsewhere

*Winner of the 2022 New American Voices Award*
*Winner of the 2023 Oregon Book Award for Fiction*
*Winner of the Writers’ League of Texas Book Award*

Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection
Finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction
Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Longlisted for The Story Prize
2023 ALA RUSA Notable Book
Kirkus Reviews, A Best Fiction Book of the Year

“Tender and precise . . . Bhanoo’s focus is clear and tightly observed, centering the decisions and difficulties of a global life, some of them gut-wrenching . . . These stories rattle and shake with the heartache of separation, rendering palpable the magnitude of small decisions in our less-than-small world.” —Samantha Hunt, The New York Times Book Review

“Yearning drives the characters in Sindya Bhanoo’s elegant, sensitive debut collection Seeking Fortune Elsewhere . . . These eight stories investigate the many ways that loneliness can enter a life and Bhanoo makes the reader feel every heartbreak through her skillful, measured prose.” —Jenny Shank, Star Tribune

“Reconceptualizes the great American road trip, centering Indian immigrants—particularly, Tamil women—and their children as its drivers and passengers . . . The journeys . . . carry readers across the vast American landscape, transcending state boundaries and biomes to stitch a narrative mosaic, its patches cut from distinct corners of the country . . . Bhanoo tackles complexity with a light hand. The writing is lush and sensory . . . With Seeking Fortune Elsewhere and its glimpse into the lives of Tamil immigrants, Bhanoo artfully extends the burgeoning South Asian American literary canon’s trajectory.” —Meena Venkataramanan, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“This debut collection of short stories from Sindya Bhanoo is a rich exploration of the South Indian immigrant experience . . . Raw, honest, and intimate, Bhanoo’s gift for storytelling shines in these short stories that paint full pictures and connect with each other, though they take place in different countries.” —Kaitlin Stevens, BuzzFeed

“Eight slice-of-life narratives . . . Seeking Fortune Elsewhere favors the zero endings of Anton Chekhov and aims toward the emotional, if not the stylistic, lineage of Jhumpa Lahiri and Akhil Sharma . . . The appeal of Seeking Fortune Elsewhere resides in its gentle trust that culturally faithful stories can and should slip easily across borders.” —Anita Felicelli, Alta

“An extraordinary debut collection centering the complex and diverse experiences of South Asian immigrants.” —Karla Strand, Ms.

“Written with a roving curiosity, Bhanoo’s characters live and breathe like real people, their paths branching off the page and twining into your heart. “—Chicago Review of Books, A Best Book of the Month

“Bhanoo’s command of language is meditative and deeply human . . . Seeking Fortune Elsewhere may be ingrained in a sense of diaspora and displacement. But one can’t help but feel that in her brilliant writing, Bhanoo has found her place.” —Valerie Wu, Asia Pacific Arts

“Given Bhanoo’s eye for setting and detail, the stories are uniformly compelling . . . Full of empathy and emotional truth.” —Dr. Rajesh C. Oza, Khabar

“Luminous and piercing . . . Bhanoo’s prose is delicate, spare, and radiant with emotion . . . How to live with what’s missing is a question Bhanoo poses to each of her characters, and she lets them stumble toward their answers with tenderness and affection . . . Seeking Fortune Elsewhere is a companion in healing, a book that surfaces our longing and vulnerability. The stories in Bhanoo’s collection articulate a vision of sorrow, regret, and reconciliation, one which asks us to share space with and welcome them in our lives.”—Melody S. Gee, Commonweal

“Throughout each story, Sindya adds layers of nuance, so each story has subtleties that are’t immediately apparent until a second or third read. Most of all, Sindya’s skill in creating compelling plots does justice to the characters within them, often showing the importance of compassion . . . In Seeking Fortunate Elsewhere, you can sit down with these individuals, knowing that even if they are fiction, there is someone out there just like them.” —Shelf Unbound

“Beautifully detailed and full of emotional truth.” —Electric Literature, A Best Book of the Year

“Exquisite . . . Bhanoo’s piercing stories further augment the growing shelves of spectacular first short story collections by women of color.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Stunning . . . Bhanoo transforms human drama into mystery. Graceful stories by a writer with enormous empathy for even the most flawed and forlorn among us.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Stunning . . . Bhanoo finds novel ways for her protagonists to cope with adversity . . . This introduces a great new talent.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)