Akhil Sharma is one of a generation of up-and-coming Indian writers across the English-speaking diaspora that have appeared since the later 1990s. "If You Sing like That for Me," his debut work published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1995, drew instantaneous critical acclaim for him. It received the Second Place O. Henry Award for that year (beating out such better-known short story writers as Joyce Carol Oates and Jane Smiley) and was listed in The Best American Short Stories of 1996.

But Sharma did not become a well-known literary name on the national scale until the publication of his first novel, An Obedient Father, which received nationwide review, was named a New York Times Notable Book, and was the recipient of the prestigious literary award, the Hemingway/PEN New England Award. The novel is set in India, as is much of Sharma's other work including "If You Sing...