A Life of Adventure and Delight

Reviews

"Focusing exclusively on Indian characters, both in Delhi and in the New York metropolitan area, [Sharma] brings a keen cultural awareness to each of these stories.… [A Life of Adventure and Delight is] perceptive, humane, and pointed." — New York Times Book Review

"[Sharma’s] stories are beautiful, deceptively simple, and potentially dangerous." — Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer

"What an exciting and original writer this is, and what a knock-out collection." — David Sedaris, best-selling author of Naked

"These stories have a psychological acuity that redeems their dark worldview." — Kirkus Reviews

"Those seeking quiet moments of revelation will find them here." — Publishers Weekly

"A melancholy and at turns tender exploration of the human psyche at its most vulnerable." — Angel City Review

"If you love short story collections, this one’s for you.… Author Akhil Sharma’s characters aren’t perfect—they wrestle with belonging, tradition, and temptation—but they’re heartbreakingly real and relatable, even at their worst." — HelloGiggles

"The stories in Akhil Sharma’s A Life of Adventure and Delight sweep across the page like monsoons—filled with energy, chaos, surprise, and rapture, they ravish and transform the very nature of reading." — Adam Johnson, National Book Award–winning author of Fortune Smiles

"Readers wade into these stories as though stepping into a calm river only to be caught by an undercurrent of the most devastating kind—the demand of everyday existence. Akhil Sharma's words touch the deep experience that often remains wordless. He is truly the Chekhov of our time." — Yiyun Li, author of Gold Boy, Emerald Girl and The Vagrants

"Akhil Sharma’s deceptively simple diction has a way of cutting straight to the human bone. The stories in A Life of Adventure and Delight are revelations, every one." — Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Empire Falls and Everybody’s Fool