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If You See Me, Don't Say Hi: Stories

"In stories that are moving, thoughtful, entertaining, and discomfiting all at once, Neel Patel upends what we think the experience of Indians in America looks like. It’s about time."
Rumaan Alam, author of Rich and Pretty

In these eleven sharp, surprising stories, Neel Patel gives voice to our most deeply held stereotypes and then slowly undermines them. His characters, almost all of who are first-generation Indian Americans, subvert our expectations that they will sit quietly by. We meet two brothers caught in an elaborate web of envy and loathing a young gay man who becomes involved with an older man whose secret he could never guess three women who almost gleefully throw off the pleasant agreeability society asks of them and, in the final pair of linked stories, a young couple struggling against the devastating force of community gossip.

If You See Me, Don't Say Hi examines the collisions of old world and new world, small town and big city, traditional beliefs like arranged marriage and modern rituals like Facebook stalking. The men and women in these stories are full of passion, regret, envy, anger, and yearning. They fall in love with the wrong people and betray one another and deal with the accumulation of years of subtle racism. They are utterly compelling. Ranging across the country, Patel’s stories empathetic, provocative, twisting, and wryly funny introduce a bold new literary voice, one that feels more timely than ever.