Join debut novelist Vibhuti Jain on our stage for a reading from her new book, Our Best Intentions, followed by a conversation with celebrated local author Jeannie Zusy. We are thrilled to host Vibhuti for her first New York stop along her book launch tour.
This event is free, but we ask you to RSVP here for planning purposes. Books will be available at the event for purchase and signing.
ABOUT OUR BEST INTENTIONS: A pulsating debut about an immigrant family that gets caught in the middle of a criminal investigation, perfect for readers of Everything I Never Told You and Ask Again, Yes.
Babur “Bobby” Singh, single parent and owner of fledging Uber business “Move with Bobby,” remains ever hopeful about ascending the ladder of American success. He lives in an affluent suburb of New York with his daughter Angie, an introverted teenager who is uncomfortable in her own skin unless she’s swimming.
During summer break, Angie is walking home after training at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a classmate from a wealthy, prominent family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and—it’s later discovered—wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school.
The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. As the town fractures, Angie must navigate conflicting narratives and wrestle with her own moral culpability. Meanwhile, Babur’s painstaking efforts to shield Angie and protect his hard-earned efforts to assimilate overshadow his ability to see right from wrong.
Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a suspenseful drama about a father and daughter re-examining their familial bonds and place in the community. Both a gripping page-turner and an intimate portrait of an immigrant family, Vibhuti Jain’s provocative debut explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias are exposed.
ABOUT VIBHHUTI (“VIB”) JAIN: Vib lives with her husband in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she works in international development finance. She began her career as a corporate lawyer in New York City. She holds degrees from Yale University and Harvard Law School. Our Best Intentions is her first novel.
ABOUT JEANNIE ZUSY: Jeannie Zusy has written many full-length plays, some screenplays and several stories. Her first novel, The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream, was published last fall and featured here at Hudson Valley Books for Humanity. She has two young-adult daughters and lives with her husband and creatures in New York’s Hudson River Valley.