Every Happiness: A Novel

Every Happiness follows Deepa and Ruchi, who meet at their Catholic school in India at age 12 and form a swift, lasting connection. As they grow up, their friendship is marked by intimacy, jealousy, and suppressed desire, even as they navigate their families' expectations and personal ambitions. In their twenties, Deepa marries a doctor and moves to the suburbs of Connecticut. Ruchi quickly follows, finding an engineer also bound for the same state. However, life in the United States differs from what either woman anticipated. Deepa's daughter seeks affection Deepa refuses to give, while Ruchi's son resists her care. Their closeness is tested by growing class disparity, competing family needs, and differing desires. When Ruchi discovers a dangerous secret about Deepa's husband's wealth, both women must weigh the tangled bonds of their friendship against their lives and their families' wellbeing within the Indian American community. The novel explores the slippery edges of a lifelong relationship and the invisible threads that bind people to those they love most.