The Limits of the World

Acker unwinds a complex intergenerational story of immigration, culture, family, partnership, and ethics in her skillful debut. Sunil Chandaria is struggling. A PhD student of philosophy at Harvard, he is at an impasse writing his dissertation on ethical behavior and is in danger of losing his funding if he doesn’t finish. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Amy, is disturbed by her parents’ increasing religiosity. Sunil has a difficult relationship with his own parents, an Indian couple who immigrated to America from an Indian enclave in Nairobi years earlier. His mother in particular is unhappy in Massachusetts, running a struggling shop that sells artisanal Kenyan crafts; her husband, a prominent doctor, has been keeping the store afloat financially. When Sunil learns of a shocking family secret about why his family left Kenya, he must return to track down the exact events leading to his family’s departure. Sunil’s travels through Kenya move effortlessly through dreamy sequences and feature plenty of difficult ethical questions and tense family drama. Fans of Jhumpa Lahiri or Yaa Gyasi will want to check out Acker’s elegant saga. (Apr.)