Family Life – A Novel - Softcover

Sharma is a rare master at charting the frailties and failures, the cruelties and rages, the altering moods and contradictions, whims and perversities of a tragic cast of characters. But this most unsentimental writer leaves the reader, finally and surprisingly, moved.--Kiran Desai

An immigrant story like no other: funny and dark, unrelenting and above all, true.--Nell Freudenberger

Sharma spent 13 years writing this slim novel, and the effort shows in each lucid sentence and heartbreaking detail.--Stephen Lee

Surface simplicity and detachment are the hallmarks of this novel, but hidden within its small, unembellished container are great torrents of pity and grief. Sedulously scaled and crafted, it transforms the chaos of trauma into a glowing work of art.

Outstanding...Every page is alive and surprising, proof of [Sharma's] huge, unique talent.--David Sedaris

Riveting... Sharma is compassionate but unflinching.--Sonali Deraniyagala

Dark humor twines through Sharma's unforgettable story of survival and its costs.--Mary Pols

I lost all track of time while I was reading it, and felt by the end that I'd returned from a great and often harrowing journey... To my own surprise, I found myself renewed after reading it, and imbued with a feeling of hope.--John Wray

A heartbreaking novel-from-life... [Sharma] takes after Hemingway, as each word of his brilliant novel feels deliberate, and each line is quietly moving.--Maddie Crum

Family Life is a terse, devastating account of growing up as a brilliant outsider in American culture. It is a nearly perfect novel.--Edmund White