You Bring the Distant Near
This elegant young adult novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations,*You Bring the Distant Near*explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse.

From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity.

Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.


Full Cast:
Sneha Mathan, as Narrator
Shivali Bhammer, as Sonia
Priya Ayyar, as Tara
N'Jameh Camara, as Chantal
Zehra Jane Naqvi, as Anna
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You Bring the Distant Near
This elegant young adult novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations,*You Bring the Distant Near*explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse.

From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity.

Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.


Full Cast:
Sneha Mathan, as Narrator
Shivali Bhammer, as Sonia
Priya Ayyar, as Tara
N'Jameh Camara, as Chantal
Zehra Jane Naqvi, as Anna
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You Bring the Distant Near

You Bring the Distant Near

Unabridged — 7 hours, 15 minutes

You Bring the Distant Near

You Bring the Distant Near

Unabridged — 7 hours, 15 minutes

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Overview

This elegant young adult novel captures the immigrant experience for one Indian-American family with humor and heart. Told in alternating teen voices across three generations,*You Bring the Distant Near*explores sisterhood, first loves, friendship, and the inheritance of culture--for better or worse.

From a grandmother worried that her children are losing their Indian identity to a daughter wrapped up in a forbidden biracial love affair to a granddaughter social-activist fighting to preserve Bengali tigers, Perkins weaves together the threads of a family growing into an American identity.

Here is a sweeping story of five women at once intimately relatable and yet entirely new.


Full Cast:
Sneha Mathan, as Narrator
Shivali Bhammer, as Sonia
Priya Ayyar, as Tara
N'Jameh Camara, as Chantal
Zehra Jane Naqvi, as Anna

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2017 - AudioFile

Five narrators represent the alternating voices of three generations of women from South Asia. A chime separates different characters, settings, situations, and time periods beginning in 1970s, when two sisters immigrate to America. Tara’s softness represents her artistic soul while Sonia’s tone is sharper, especially when it comes to her evolving activism. Both slip facilely into Indian accents as they shift between cultures, searching for their identities and acceptance. Both show tenderness for their supportive father, frustration with their traditional mother, Ranee, and caring for each other. Ranee speaks only briefly; her deep, rich voice hints at the depth locked within her. Later, different narrators portray Tara and Sonia’s daughters, who also struggle to understand their identities, their heritage, and their grandmother, Ranee, who is transformed by the 9/11 tragedy. S.W. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

A 2017 National Book Award Longlist Title

A Junior Library Guild Selection

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

A Shelf Awareness 2017 Best Book of the Year

South Asia Book Award Winner

2018 White Ravens Award Winner

A Louisiana Readers' Choice Award Nominee

"Full of sisterhood, diversity, and complex, strong women, this book will speak to readers as they will undoubtedly find a kindred spirit in at least one of the Das women." —Booklist starred review

"... an unforgettable novel... Perkins’s vibrantly written exploration of a family in transition is saturated with romance, humor, and meaningful reflections on patriotism, blended cultures, and carving one’s own path." —Publishers Weekly starred review

"This stunning book about immigration and cultural assimilation is a must-purchase for teen and new adult collections." —School Library Journal starred review

"...an ambitious narrative that illuminates past and present, departure and reunion, women and family." —The Horn Book starred review

"...features inspiring South Asian girl and women protagonists grappling with love, faith, and culture, as well as the intersections among their personal, communal, and national histories...lushly drawn and emotionally resonant." —Kirkus

"The fully fleshed characters and complex family dynamics provide a vibrant background for exploration of multigenerational adaptation to a diverse America and of the familial and romantic love that nourishes their new roots." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"With wisdom and wit, You Bring the Distant Near illustrates the beauty in diversity. Perkins's striking imagery and deep, heartfelt insights illuminate the darkest corners of ignorance, providing a bright path to understanding and embracing differences in all their many splendors." —Shelf Awareness starred review

Kirkus Reviews

2017-08-02
Perkins' latest, inspired by the author's own experience as the youngest of three sisters who arrived in the United States in the 1970s, is told in alternating voices across three generations. This saga tells the intertwined stories of Ranee Das, the matriarch, who uproots her family from Ghana (and then the United Kingdom) to find fortune in the United States; Sonia and Tara, her daughters, who struggle with identity and acceptance; and Anna and Chantal, Ranee's granddaughters, who fight injustices at home and in their communities. As in the author's other books, this novel features inspiring South Asian girl and women protagonists grappling with love, faith, and culture, as well as the intersections among their personal, communal, and national histories. The chapters from Ranee's point of view, highlighting her redemptive transformation from racist mother-in-law to doting grandmother to a half-black grandchild, and those told in Sonia's and Tara's voices, including their turns from awkward and aspiring immigrant teenagers to New York Times reporter and Bollywood star respectively, are lushly drawn and emotionally resonant. The final third of the book, however, from the points of view of Anna and Chantal, is less so; its plotlines—Anna's quest to redecorate her elite private school's locker rooms and Chantal's wrecking of her rich, white boyfriend's Porsche—seem contrived and hastily written. While "issues" permeate the book (war, migration, racism, colorism, body positivity, environmentalism), they are more deftly woven into the narrative in the earlier, historical chapters than the later, contemporary ones. Although the book loses steam and heart toward the end, the earlier chapters, moving and rich in character and setting, make up for it. (Historical fiction/fiction. 12-18)

Product Details

BN ID: 2940169124200
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication date: 09/12/2017
Edition description: Unabridged
Age Range: 10 - 13 Years
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