Every Happiness - by Reena Shah (Hardcover)

About the Book

Every Happiness is a dazzling debut that explores the ties that bind two women across decades and continents despite rivalry, class difference, and the conflicting needs of family and self.

Book Synopsis

"A bold and moving novel . . . marks the arrival of a radiant new voice." - Megha Majumdar, author of A Guardian and a Thief

Every Happiness is a dazzling debut that explores the ties that bind two women across decades and continents despite rivalry, class difference, and the conflicting needs of family and self.

Deepa and Ruchi are 12 years old when they meet at their Catholic school in India, but their connection is swift and lasting. As the two girls grow up and face their families' expectations and the limits of their ambitions, their friendship is marked by intimacy, jealousy, and suppressed desire.

When, in their twenties, Deepa marries a doctor and moves from India to the suburbs of Connecticut, Ruchi quickly finds an engineer bound for the same state and follows her friend across the world. But life in the United States is different than either woman expects. Deepa's daughter seeks affection Deepa refuses to give, and Ruchi's son resists her smothering care. At the same time, Deepa and Ruchi find their closeness tested by a growing class disparity, competing family needs, and the differences in their desires. Ultimately, when Ruchi discovers a dangerous secret about Deepa's husband's wealth, both women are forced to weigh the tangled bonds of their friendship with their lives, and their families', in the burgeoning Indian American community.

"Moving and unforgettable" (Kimberly King Parsons), Every Happiness explores the slippery edges of a lifelong relationship, and the invisible threads that bind us, sometimes painfully, to those we love most.

Review Quotes

"I don't think I have ever missed a set of novel characters more: astonishingly alive, lovable, aggravating, real. Shah writes beautifully about every sort of love: filial, parental, marital, and above all the longing and vivid pettiness and durable, complicated love between women over decades." --Elizabeth McCracken, author of BOWLAWAY

"A bold and moving novel with great emotional intricacy and keen attention to moral predicaments. It marks the arrival of a radiant new voice unafraid to examine love in all its forms, from the most stifling to the most freeing." --Megha Majumdar, author of the 2025 National Book Award finalist A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF

"Moving and unforgettable, containing what I love most about fiction: a lush, unique, urgent voice steeped in cultural relevance, biting humor, and sentences that swerve and surprise." --Kimberly King Parsons, author of WE WERE THE UNIVERSE

"One of the most arresting and rewarding novels I've read in years. Reena Shah is a writer of immense gifts . . . How lucky-and yes, how very happy-we are to have this book in the world." --Bret Anthony Johnston, author of WE BURN DAYLIGHT and REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS

"Full of keen observations and confident prose, Every Happiness exposes the complexities of family, friendship, and the so-called American dream." --Rita Chang-Eppig, author of DEEP AS THE SKY, RED AS THE SEA

About the Author

Reena Shah is a writer, editor, and teacher. Her work has been featured in the Masters Review, Electric Literature, Joyland, BBC, the American Prospect, National Geographic, and the Guardian, among other publications. She has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, Millay Arts, Tin House, Sustainable Arts Foundation, Cuttyhunk Island Residency, and the Fulbright Foundation. She received an MFA in fiction from the Michener Center for Writers, where she won the Keene Prize for Literature. For many years she was a kathak dancer in New York and India. She now lives on Roosevelt Island, NY with her family and teaches in a public school.