Marriage Of A Thousand Lies

Description

“What a gorgeous, heartbreaking novel.”—Roxane Gay

A necessary and exciting addition to both the Sri Lankan-American and LGBTQ canons, SJ Sindu's debut novel offers a moving and sharply rendered exploration of friendship, family, love, and loss.

Lucky and her husband, Krishna, are gay. They present an illusion of marital bliss to their conservative Sri Lankan–American families, while each dates on the side. It’s not ideal, but for Lucky, it seems to be working. She goes out dancing, she drinks a bit, she makes ends meet by doing digital art on commission. But when Lucky’s grandmother has a nasty fall, Lucky returns to her childhood home and unexpectedly reconnects with her former best friend and first lover, Nisha, who is preparing for her own arranged wedding with a man she’s never met.

As the connection between the two women is rekindled, Lucky tries to save Nisha from entering a marriage based on a lie. But does Nisha really want to be saved? And after a decade’s worth of lying, can Lucky break free of her own circumstances and build a new life? Is she willing to walk away from all that she values about her parents and community to live in a new truth? As Lucky—an outsider no matter what choices she makes—is pushed to the breaking point, Marriage of a Thousand Lies offers a vivid exploration of a life lived at a complex intersection of race, sexuality, and nationality. The result is a profoundly American debut novel shot through with humor and loss, a story of love, family, and the truths that define us all.

About the Author

SJ Sindu is a Tamil diaspora author of two literary novels, two hybrid chapbooks, and two forthcoming graphic novels. Sindu’s first novel, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, won the Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award and the second novel, Blue-Skinned Gods, is currently a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Sindu’s newest work is the hybrid chapbook titled Dominant Genes. Sindu holds a PhD in English and Creative Writing from Florida State University and teaches at the University of Toronto Scarborough. More at sjsindu.com or @sjsindu on Twitter/Instagram.