New Releases by Akhil Sharma

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. As he stood up, he suddenly felt aroused by Mrs Shaw''s large breasts, boy''s haircut, and little-girl sneakers. Even her nostrils suggested a frank sexuality. Gopal wanted to put his hands on her waist and pull her toward him. And then he realized that he had. Gopal Maurya''s wife has left him, preferring to seek enlightenment in an ashram in India. But when his neighbour comes to borrow his lawnmower, Gopal thinks he might find something similar right here in New Jersey. Armed with Cosmopolitan magazine as his bible, he embarks on a quest for suburban romance.

Have you experienced failures in your life? Is your startup business facing a downturn? Is your dream partner telling you she hates you? Don’t despair. Failure encages us all. Akhil, born with a plastic spoon in India, was specially designed for all failures life can bring. Growing up like everyone, the more he tried for success, the more he failed. Not until when he redefined his stupidity and started listening to his heart, his failures brought forth his keys to freedom and made him discover that ‘Failure encourages us all’. This book is about his transformation from being a failure to the creator of the award-winning technique ‘The Art of Failure’. It talks about his technique, hidden in the form of an entertaining but true autobiographical story. It is helpful for everyone who wants to become a fearless failure warrior rather than being a usual success hunter. The narrative is set against the transformation of India - from its analog days to the digital age and bubbling startup economy. One thing which hasn’t changed with time though is the hatred and fear towards failure and how it has been eating up our enormous innovation potential for ages. It is time to accept failure as a part of life – where there is no failure, there is no growth. Learn from your experiences and move on!

A Life of Adventure and Delight delivers eight masterful stories from dazzlingly original and critically acclaimed author Akhil Sharma. Hailed as a storyteller whose fiction is “a glowing work of art” (Wall Street Journal), Akhil Sharma is possessed of a narrative voice “as hypnotic as those found in the pages of Dostoyevsky” (The Nation). In A Life of Adventure and Delight, Sharma delivers eight masterful stories that focus on Indian protagonists at home and abroad and that plunge the reader into the unpredictable workings of the human heart. A young woman in an arranged marriage awakens one day surprised to find herself in love with her husband. A retired divorcé tries to become the perfect partner by reading women’s magazines. A man’s longstanding contempt for his cousin suddenly shifts inward when he witnesses his cousin caring for a sick woman. Tender and darkly comic, the protagonists in A Life of Adventure and Delight deceive themselves and engage in odd behaviors as they navigate how to be good, how to make meaningful relationships, and the strengths and pitfalls of self-interest. Elegantly written and emotionally immediate, the stories provide an intimate, honest assessment of human relationships between mothers and sons, sons and lovers, and husband and wives from a dazzlingly original, critically acclaimed writer.

Ajay Mishra tiene ocho años cuando, a finales de la década de los setenta, él, su hermano mayor y sus padres dejan Delhi para instalarse en Queens, Nueva York, porque a su padre le han ofrecido un trabajo. El aterrizaje de esta familia india de clase media en el paraíso del consumo y los canales de televisión que emiten las veinticuatro horas les genera un choque cultural que sus miembros digieren en el empeño de adaptarse a su nuevo país. Tienen grandes esperanzas puestas en el hijo mayor, cuyas excelentes notas le van a permitir estudiar en un prestigioso instituto. Pero un accidente en una piscina que le deja graves secuelas cambia radicalmente el destino de los Mishra y sobre todo el del joven Ajay, a través de cuyos ojos se relata la historia. El paraíso muestra entonces su cara menos grata, el acoso al diferente en la escuela, la presión económica, la incomprensión del entorno..., y la familia está a punto de desmoronarse. El padre deberá afrontar su alcoholismo, la madre tendrá que plantearse aceptar un trabajo por debajo de su cualificación y Ajay soportar la presión de ser tan brillante en los estudios como su hermano. Para él la literatura se acabará convirtiendo en un refugio y en un instrumento para entender y explicar la realidad.

Traduit de l''anglais (États-Unis) par Paule Guivarch. Ajay n''a pas dix ans lorsque sa famille quitte l''Inde pour s''installer aux États-Unis. Lui et son grand frère Birju découvrent émerveillés ce pays étonnant, promesse d''un avenir radieux. Mais pour Birju, le destin va en décider autrement. Dans l''ombre de son frère aîné, Ajay reste seul à porter les espoirs de ses parents. Adolescent rêveur trouvant refuge dans la littérature, tiraillé entre deux cultures, il va devoir lutter pour trouver sa voie – sans jamais oublier les siens. Akhil Sharma ne nous cache rien des pensées d''Ajay, y compris les plus dérangeantes. Il livre avec Notre famille un récit bouleversant, marqué par un humour et une force de vie inextinguibles.

De veertigjarige Ajay blikt terug op zijn jeugd in India en de beginjaren in zijn nieuwe thuisland, de Verenigde Staten. Vooral de periode net na de emigratie was heel heftig. Net wanneer zijn oudere broer Birju tot een prestigieuze middelbare school is toegelaten, verandert een tragisch ongeluk het lot van het hele gezin. Birju wordt het middelpunt van de familie, vader raakt aan de drank en moeder wordt steeds wispelturiger, en Ajay zoekt zijn toevlucht in boeken. Deze duister-komische maar ook liefdevolle roman, verteld vanuit het perspectief van de jongste zoon Ajay, toont de strijd, de woede, en het schuldgevoel van een gezin in een poging om bij elkaar te blijven. Akhil Sharma (1971, Delhi) is een Indiaas-Amerikaanse auteur. Op achtjarige leeftijd emigreerde hij naar de Verenigde Staten en hij groeide vervolgens op in Edison, New Jersey. Hij studeerde aan Princeton University en Harvard Business School. Sharma is auteur van meerdere bekroonde korte verhalen en zijn roman Een gehoorzame vader won in 2001 de PEN/Hemingway Award en de Whiting Writers Award.

One of The Atlantic''s Great American Novels Winner of the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award "Gorgeously tender at its core…beautiful, heartstopping…Family Life really blazes." —Sonali Deraniyagala, New York Times Book Review Hailed as a "supreme storyteller" (Philadelphia Inquirer) for his "cunning, dismaying and beautifully conceived" fiction (New York Times), Akhil Sharma is possessed of a narrative voice "as hypnotic as those found in the pages of Dostoyevsky" (The Nation). In his highly anticipated second novel, Family Life, he delivers a story of astonishing intensity and emotional precision. We meet the Mishra family in Delhi in 1978, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju play cricket in the streets, waiting for the day when their plane tickets will arrive and they and their mother can fly across the world and join their father in America. America to the Mishras is, indeed, everything they could have imagined and more: when automatic glass doors open before them, they feel that surely they must have been mistaken for somebody important. Pressing an elevator button and the elevator closing its doors and rising, they have a feeling of power at the fact that the elevator is obeying them. Life is extraordinary until tragedy strikes, leaving one brother severely brain-damaged and the other lost and virtually orphaned in a strange land. Ajay, the family’s younger son, prays to a God he envisions as Superman, longing to find his place amid the ruins of his family’s new life. Heart-wrenching and darkly funny, Family Life is a universal story of a boy torn between duty and his own survival.

The objective of this research is to evaluate the stiffness and strength demands on flange braces in metal building systems. This objective is accomplished by a targeted study of the effects of various attributes of metal building systems not fully addressed in existing bracing design procedures. Special emphasis is placed on attributes such as unequal brace spacing and stiffness, end brace point flexibility, nonprismatic member geometry, special requirements at knee joints and the specific configuration of combined girt/purlin, flange diagonal, diaphragm and X bracing systems used in metal building construction. : A sub-objective of the research is the demonstration of how virtual test simulation via full nonlinear finite element analysis may be applied to solve a structural engineering research problem that would be difficult to address by any other means. When conducted properly, virtual test simulation can serve as a valuable companion to experimental testing since attributes such as residual stresses and critical geometric imperfections can be controlled precisely and with relative ease in virtual test simulation.

Ram Karan est un homme corrompu. C''est aussi un corrupteur. Petit fonctionnaire au département de l''Education de New Delhi, il recueille et distribue les pots-de-vin pour le compte de son influent protecteur, M. Gupta. Mais ce cynique est rongé par un ignoble secret. Lorsque Rajiv Gandhi est assassiné, le petit monde de Ram bascule dans le chaos. La montée des haines ethniques, la confusion et la tentation de la trahison le plongent dans une sorte de panique. Mais sa fille révèle publiquement son abjection. Ram commence alors un combat désespéré pour sa propre survie. Sa chute est inéluctable. Dostoïevskien dans son analyse de la culpabilité, ce livre est aussi un roman picaresque, mélange surprenant de drame et de comédie.

Een corrupte Indiase ambtenaar probeert in de jaren negentig zijn positie en leven te redden als politieke veranderingen en gebeurtenissen in zijn familie zijn bestaan bedreigen.

@A stunning novel about family secrets, hailed nationwide @as a masterpiece.@@Ram Karan, a corrupt official in the New Delhi school system, lives in one of the city''s slums with his widowed daughter and his little granddaughter. Bumbling, sad, ironic, Ram is also a man corroded by a terrible secret. With the assassination of the politician Rajiv Gandhi, Ram is plunged into a series of escalating and possibly deadly political betrayals. As he tries to save his family, his daughter reveals a crime he had hoped was long buried-and Ram, struggling to survive, must make amends after a life of deception. Taking the reader deep into a world of Indian families and politics, gangsters and movie stars, riots and morgues, An Obedient Father is an astonishing fiction debut, a work of rare sensibilities that presents a character as tormented, funny, and morally ambiguous as one of Dostoyevsky''s antiheroes.@@@

Embark on an unforgettable journey via the fascinating Himalayan area on this thrilling love tale that takes an sudden turn. Akshay and Ojasvi, souls drawn collectively with the aid of an simple connection, discover themselves immersed in a global of romance and adventure. while a couples-best ride to a secluded tenting web site is interrupted by using a chain of terrifying occasions, they are faced with impossible threat and need to combat for his or her lives. As chaos and destruction occur, Akshay and Ojasvi''s love becomes their beacon of desire amidst the harrowing occasions. Will they discover a way to continue to exist and are seeking for solace in every other''s palms? Brace yourself for an emotional rollercoaster as you adventure through the depths of love, courage, and the indomitable spirit of humanity within the face of adversity. This gripping tale will hold you on the threshold of your seat, unable to position the e-book down until the final web page.