> Skip to content
  • Published: 5 September 2017
  • ISBN: 9781101982266
  • Imprint: Putnam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $32.99

Lucky Boy



A heart-wrenching novel about the transformative power of motherhood and the redemptive beauty of love, perfect for readers of Jacquelyn Mitchard, Jenny Offill, and Cristina Henriquez.

A gripping tale of adventure and searing reality, Lucky Boy gives voice to two mothers bound together by their love for one lucky boy.

“Sekaran has written a page-turner that’s touching and all too real.”—People

“Heart-rending and heartwarming….There’s something for everyone in this wonderful novel.”—Celeste Ng, Little Fires Everywhere

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR, THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, AND LIBRARY JOURNAL

In this astonishing novel, Shanthi Sekaran gives voice to the devotion and anguish of motherhood through two women bound together by their love for one boy. Soli, a young undocumented Mexican woman in Berkeley, CA, finds that motherhood offers her an identity in a world where she's otherwise invisible. When she is placed in immigrant detention, her son comes under the care of Kavya, an Indian-American wife overwhelmed by her own impossible desire to have a child. As Soli fights for her son, Kavya builds her love on a fault line, her heart wrapped around someone else's child. Exploring the ways in which dreams and determination can reshape a family, Sekaran transforms real life into a thing of beauty. From rural Oaxaca to Berkeley's Gourmet Ghetto to the dreamscapes of Silicon Valley, Lucky Boy offers a moving and revelatory look at the evolving landscape of the American dream and the ever-changing borders of love.

  • Published: 5 September 2017
  • ISBN: 9781101982266
  • Imprint: Putnam
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Shanthi Sekaran

Shanthi Sekaran teaches creative writing at California College of the Arts, and is a member of the Portuguese Artists Colony and the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. Her work has appeared in Best New American Voices and Canteen, and online at Zyzzyva and Mutha Magazine. Her first novel, The Prayer Room, was published by MacAdam Cage. A California native, she lives in Berkeley with her husband and two children.

Praise for Lucky Boy

"Sekaran is a master of drawing detailed, richly layered characters and relationships; here are the subtly nuanced lines of love and expectation between parents and children; here, too are moments of great depth and insight. A superbly crafted and engrossing novel." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Humanizes current discussions of immigration, privilege, and what it means to be an American. . . . Sekaran evokes compassion for all the principals involved in the story . . . . Highly recommended and would be a strong choice for book clubs." --Library Journal (starred review)

"Remarkably empathetic . . . Deeply compassionate . . . Delivers penetrating insights into the intangibles of motherhood and indeed, all humanity." --Booklist (starred review)