You Have Given Me a Country

Book excerpt: American Book Award Winner: A “mesmerizing” memoir about identity from the daughter of an Irish-Catholic mother and a Sindhi-Indian father (Chandra Prasad, editor of Mixed). A ForeWord Book of the Year You Have Given Me a Country is an emotionally powerful exploration of blurred borders, identity, and what it means to be multicultural. Combining memoir, history, and fiction, the book follows the paths of the author’s Irish-Catholic mother and Sindhi-Indian father on their journey toward each other and the biracial child they create. It is a book that weaves two varied, yet ultimately universal backgrounds into a unique creation that spans continents, generations, languages, and histories, and, ultimately, it is a story about family. “Vaswani takes her place among the other great innovators of form—Aleksandar Hemon, Maxine Hong Kingston, Michael Ondaatje—who write eloquently and ardently about the land of in-between.” —Maud Casey, author of Genealogy “A confident writer whose unflinching eye shows the reader the beauty grounded in the mundane.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Vaswani’s voice is witty, sharp, innovative, unique.” —Chitra Banerjee