Suburban Sahibs

it reads like a novel but you come away actually learning something. by the end of the book, i felt like i had really gotten to know each of the characters, the place they lived and gotten some real insight into a community.

Growing up in Middlesex County in the 1980s and early 1990s, I was always curious about the seemingly sudden and rapid entrance of Patels, Mehtas, and Guptas into my community. Where did they come from? How could they leave their families and their native country? Why did they choose 'here?' Why did 'our' stores on Oak Tree Road close? Kalita's 'Suburban Sahibs' provides that much needed insight with an eloquent and expressive narrative that should be required reading for anyone of any ethnicity living in Middlesex County now or then.

Kalita evokes a sense of familiarity with the families while taking the reader through a breadth of immigrant experience. The writer tells a story of nonfiction with candor that is at once tender and witty. A must read for anyone with a desire to look through the window into the immigrant experience -- an experience rife with turmoil and triumph.