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Description
A tense and twisty story of a woman who goes missing on a morning run and her wife’s determination to both find her and clear her own name–from the bestselling author of Honor
One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head—and doesn’t come back.
Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay, Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can’t escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?
A provocative examination of suburban mores, Missing Sam captures the terror manifested in today’s political climate, and the real dangers, both physical and psychological, of being brown and queer in America.
One night after a party, old grievances surface between married couple Aliya and Sam and the night ends badly with a heated argument. Sam goes for a run early the next morning to clear her head—and doesn’t come back.
Aliya reports her wife missing, but as a gay, Muslim daughter of immigrants, she can’t escape the scrutiny and suspicion of those around her. Scared and furious and feeling isolated as strangers and acquaintances alike doubt her innocence, Aliya makes one wrong choice after another. She must fight to prove her innocence in the public eye even as she is torn between her fear that Sam is dead and her desire to find and save her wife. But is safety ever truly possible for them?
A provocative examination of suburban mores, Missing Sam captures the terror manifested in today’s political climate, and the real dangers, both physical and psychological, of being brown and queer in America.
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Praise
“[An] engrossing thriller from bestseller Umrigar (The Museum of Failures) that doubles as a moving meditation on otherness. . . . Though the hunt for Sam propels the narrative, Umrigar never loses sight of the bigger picture, including the conflicting pulls of family, faith, sexuality, and culture that shape her characters. This vivid and deeply felt narrative should please the author’s fans and win her new ones.”
—Publishers Weekly
"This novel kept me in a state of high anxiety from beginning to end. Missing Sam is a powerfully suspenseful and twisty novel that feels particularly potent in our contemporary moment."
—Dan Chaon, author of One of Us
—Dan Chaon, author of One of Us
"Missing Sam is a novel that astutely explores the alchemy of a marriage under the pressure of an unspeakable crime. These characters will make your heart ache with their human foibles and troubled histories, and as they overcome odds to find hope and redemption, so too will you."
—Shilpi Somaya Gowdi, author of A Great Country
—Shilpi Somaya Gowdi, author of A Great Country
"Missing Sam is a sneaky novel. At first glance, it appears to be a thriller about a missing woman. But in actuality, Thrity Umrigar writes about gender, prejudice, cultural identity, race, and the complexities of love and marriage. What a feat! Like Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, this page turner delivers so much more than thrills and twists."
—Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle
"Thrity Umrigar delivers a page-turning story of a family torn apart by violence. When one of their own disappears, each member must navigate grief, history, and pain to help one another heal. In coming together, they discover the power of resilience, survival, and the unbreakable bonds of love."
—Loung Ung, author of First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
"Umrigar’s compelling latest is both a brilliant psychological thriller, and a deeply emotional meditation on race, sexuality, culture, marriage and family, both the ones we come from, and the ones we are lucky enough to create. Filled with achingly believable characters, the story keeps twisting and turning where you least expect until I was holding my breath even as I couldn’t stop turning pages. Yes, it’s achingly about enduring trauma, but it’s also about what a force our inner light can be against the darkness. What a novel."
—Caroline Leavitt, bestselling author of Pictures of You