Amit Mitra finds a letter from an uncle who left the picture long ago. His mother Romola Mitra found the letter from the uncle in her first days as a newlywed. Her husband Avinash Mitra never knew that letter from the uncle existed. All the while, this letter breeds secrets and secrets the small family manages to keep under wraps in spite of the difficulties in their lives. The past and present collide as the family is torn between their roots in India and their lives in America. From the McDonald's down the street to the far-distant home in Calcutta, Romola must find where she belongs in the world after her husband is gone. Full of secret romances and questionable histories, the story of the Mitra family unwinds itself in short stories masterfully written in DON'T LET HIM KNOW.

DON'T LET HIM KNOW is a magnificent debut novel. I couldn't put it down. It is so colorful and rich in detail that I found myself transported from my desk to India, a world of tradition and family ties buried in spice. One can almost feel the pressures on each member of the family as they try to go about normal lives even in the face of the most difficult problems the world can offer. I found myself able to identify well with Romola, a woman whose life is turned upside down by a marriage she does not particularly desire and a husband whose love she cannot fully depend on. When she first reads the letter which changes everything for her, her pain is so focused and so real. The prose and points of view are all beautifully varied but still similar enough to be reminiscent of one another.

This is a short-but-intense novel which I would recommend to any reader who wants to truly feel the emotions of a complex family life which holds secrets both personal and shared. By the time the final story ends the reader has been transported to an amazing world where even the most mundane of things—a letter, a hamburger, a lipstick—has become a catalyst for huge emotional change. DON'T LET HIM KNOW is the beginning of what I believe is a promising literary career.