Fake Lives (A Novel)

When Naina Mathur loses her husband, McMansion, passport, and name within a matter of weeks, she must stake her survival on unlikely alliances with a black man and an illegal alien, both "outsiders" in Trump's America.

Naina Sharma is a comfortably smug, Indian American doctor’s wife, whose life unravels after her husband suddenly mysteriously disappears. Wary of her next-door neighbor, Tobin Harvey, Naina nevertheless forms a bond with him despite her culturally ingrained racism, and as a result, the local Indian American “model minority” community — the desis — shuns her.

Naina’s situation worsens when she discovers that her seemingly perfect husband had a frightening past and that she will be facing deportation by the Department of Homeland Security. Her suspicion that something sinister lies behind her husband’s disappearance deepens. Grief, fear, and disorientation consume her.

When Naina’s worst fears come true and ICE arrests and detains her, she meets Rani Yadav, a working-class, uneducated, single Indian woman, also ostracized by Naina’s affluent social circle. Together, they endure ordeal after ordeal until they are helped by an unlikely friend.

Determined to seek justice at every step of her way, Naina cannot avoid confronting her new realities, deciding whether to run from them or face them head on.