The Magnificent Ruins

Roy debuts with an overstuffed family drama about a surprise inheritance. On book editor Lila De’s 29th birthday in 2015, her maternal grandfather dies and she inherits the sprawling family home in Kolkata, which is currently occupied by her mother and members of her extended family. Despite earning a promotion after her employer is bought by a conglomerate, Lila returns from Brooklyn to India for the first time in a decade. While navigating her volatile relatives’, as well as pressures from her new bosses to return to the U.S., she starts making repairs to the palatial house. She also reconnects with Adil, her now-married teenage boyfriend, and stumbles into an affair. The surprise arrival of author Seth Schwartz, with whom she’s carried on a casual sexual relationship, complicates matters. Roy has a knack for immersive descriptions, but the pace drags as the plot becomes cluttered with legal drama (Lila’s family files a lawsuit contesting her grandfather’s will), a steady stream of construction snafus, and the excavation of generational trauma. It’s a case of an author biting off more than she can chew. Agent: Emma Parry, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Nov.)