Novelist Jennifer Acker Presents The Limits of the World in a Jewish Book Council Author Talk

Thursday, January 23 at 1:00 P.M.

Click here to RSVP: https://www.falmouthjewish.org/event/novelist-jennife…ncil-author-talk/ ‎

Free and open to all. Book sales and signing handled by Eight Cousins Bookstore, Falmouth

What reviewers are saying about The Limits of the World:

“Acker’s debut is a carefully drawn portrait of a family constrained by choices... a rare but honest look at the way parents, children, and spouses talk to one another but don’t always hear what’s being said. A thoughtful, deeply researched debut.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“The Limits of The World is such a smart, compassionate and elegant novel, so deeply invested in morality and the subtleties of families, cultures, and continents, that it feels delicious and exciting to recall that this is Jennifer Acker’s debut.” (Lauren Groff, author of Florida)

“The Limits of the World is the most masterful debut novel I have read in years. In beautiful, understated prose, it shows the complicated ways in which family splits and regathers. In this wise, loving book I saw my mother’s family, exiled from Nairobi; I saw me.” (Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found)

“Evocative and profound... an intimate novel about family that is, at the same time, an illumination of miscommunication across cultures, an exploration of the legacy of migration in both Africa and the US, and a philosophical rumination on ethical behaviors. Jennifer Acker’s is a wise and honest literary voice.” (Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl)

The Chandaria family―emigrants from the Indian-enclave of Nairobi―have managed to flourish in America. Premchand, the father, is a doctor who has worked doggedly to grow his practice and give his family security; his wife, Urmila, runs a business importing artisanal Kenyan crafts; and their son, Sunil, after quitting the pre-med track, has gotten accepted to a PhD program in philosophy at Harvard. But the parents have kept a very important secret from Sunil: his cousin, Bimal, is actually his older brother. And when this previously hidden history is revealed by an unforeseen accident, and the entire family is forced to return to Nairobi, Sunil reveals his own well-kept, explosive secret: his Jewish-American girlfriend, who has accompanied him to Kenya, is, in fact, already his wife. Spanning four generations and three continents, The Limits of the World illuminates the vast mosaic of cultural divisions and ethical considerations that shape the ways in which we judge one another’s actions. A dazzling debut novel―written with rare empathy and insight―it is a powerful depiction of how we prevent ourselves, unwittingly and otherwise, from understanding the people we are closest to.

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, The Yale Review, and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and organizes LitFest.