Akhil Sharma's new collection is a remarkable achievement. These tender, elegant stories - each of which was first published in the New Yorker - all explore the unpredictability of human emotion. In the sleek, minimalist prose for which his prize-winning novel Family Life was acclaimed, Sharma skilfully reveals the obstacles we face in making meaningful relationships. A striking fusion of fiction and memoir, A Life of Adventure and Delight is unflinching in exposing the burdens of trauma, infidelity, and mortality. Whether in New York or Delhi, Sharma's protagonists are always discovering what it really means to be mothers and daughters, sons and lovers, husbands and wives. Painfully intimate, this is a tour de force from a unique literary voice.
