Brendan Dowling Author Archive
Email: bdowling@ala.org
Sonali Dev On Bollywood Cinema, Writing Complicated Relationships, And The Scenes That Still Make Her Laugh Out Loud
In Sonali Dev’s The Vibrant Years, readers are treated to a compassionate examination of the very complicated relationships among three generations of women. Bindu Desai is a glamorous grandmother living an orderly life in Florida with her former daughter-in-law, the tightly wound Ali. When Bindu unexpectedly inherits a million dollars from a mysterious figure from her past, it upends her serene existence. Bindu impulsively buys a luxury condo in Naples, and she and Ali are forced to confront living on their own for the first time in years. Ali has been stuck in a holding pattern at the news station where she works, and uses her newfound independence as a chance to finally pursue the promotion that’s forever been dangled in front of her. Meanwhile, Ali’s daughter Cullie, a tech wunderkind, must deliver a new app for her investors. When they buy her half-baked pitch for a dating app, the romantically challenged mother enlists the help of her conveniently single mother and grandmother to test-drive her new invention. What follows is a hilarious comedy of manners, as the three women grapple with hilariously horrendous first dates, reappearing exes, and long-buried secrets. Critics have heaped praise on Dev’s latest book. Publishers Weekly raved, “This effervescent tale is sure to please the author’s fans and win her new ones” and Kirkus Reviews hailed it as “an intergenerational tale of self-discovery and the relationships that matter most.”
