Katy Family spills the beans on the Bangladeshi community in Houston, Texas
Short stories about Bangladeshis in Texas
For decades, every time I went to a Bangladeshi party in Houston, I was surprised and shocked by what I experienced. It wasn’t Bangladesh, but a transformed society with a new set of rules, a new global labor force close to the capitalist, who had done well, with houses and cars and swimming pools, admirers of capital and white supremacy, sprinkled with intolerance for the poor, and other groups less fortunate. For decades, my family and I have talked about our experience, reeling from the shock, often torn apart by the society of which we had wanted to be a part. My children were scarred by it. My friends and I still talk about it and try to make sense of it.
Katy Family is a book in which, story by story, I try to tell the story of a community I have loved and not loved, in fragments.
It’s here now! For your preorder.
After years and months of waiting, the book is finally here. Katy Family spills the beans on the Bangladeshi community in Houston, Texas. Link in comments for preorders!
Many thanks to my wonderful editor
and my publisher Jen Harris of Jackleg Press.
Description
Combining the powers of speculation of Kazuo Ishiguro and the sharp social critique of Aravind Adiga, this collection offers readers the ultimate experience of global fiction, stories bound and shaped by Katy, Texas, a place made by oil and capitalism. The stories weave between Bangladeshi characters experiencing the reality of the immigrant experience in America and those still in Bangladesh, wishing for the mythos of the American dream. Katy, an oil-rich suburb of Houston, is the background and ultimate symbol of global capitalism. The stories deliver the reality and impact of isolation, materialism, and the looming climate disaster. With sharp intelligence and humor, Wahhaj explores the oil industry's destructive effect on those who live within Texas and those far beyond its borders. Elizabeth McKenzie, author of MacGregor Tells the World and Stop That Girl, says, "Wahhaj's stories are addictive--richly observed, thrumming with sly depictions of ambition and hypocrisy, painting a luminous panorama of an American subculture in all its comic and tender complexity.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/katy-family/a007f187b12da885?ean=9781956907131&next=t&aid=37596&listref=forthcoming-20b40a9b-c321-4159-8d51-1669c78813f6&fbclid=IwY2xjawIzP_FleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHQImFP-Jvb99F452wcXM1KET7CgLeXSWCzC-y7s1vnYDcireMfjpODlzoQ_aem_iPpwOabrFPH4RBF0LXZBkg
I pre-ordered through Bookshop.org. Looking forward to reading it!