The Magnificent Ruins

Vikram Seth and Thrity Umrigar meet Rebecca in this exhilarating inheritance story about an Indian American book editor from Brooklyn who inherits her ancestral home in Kolkata, and her extended family still living there. With an unforgettable house at its heart, a violent past erupting into the present, a problematic romance, and a compelling and conflicted heroine, this is an utterly addictive read that will spark conversation.

It is the summer of 2015, and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in India, informing her that she's inherited her family's sprawling estate, she must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago.

Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother after a decade of estrangement, and then there are her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom still live in the house, all of whom resent her sudden inheritance. To make matters more complicated, her first boyfriend seeks her out when she arrives, and her star author—and occasional lover—is suddenly determined to make things serious.

As Lila tries to come to terms with both past and present, long-suppressed secrets from her family emerge, culminating in an act of shocking violence, and she must finally reckon with her inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface.

Wise, witty, and deeply moving, The Magnificent Ruins is an utterly addictive read and a stunning debut.