Our best intentions : a novel

"An immigrant family gets caught in the middle of a criminal investigation in this pulsating debut, perfect for readers of Everything I Never Told You and Ask Again, Yes"--

Babur "Bobby" Singh, single parent and owner of fledging Uber business "Move with Bobby," remains ever hopeful about ascending the ladder of American success. He lives in an affluent suburb of New York with his daughter Angie, an introverted teenager who is uncomfortable in her own skin unless she's swimming. During summer break, Angie is walking home after training at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a classmate from a wealthy, prominent family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and--it's later discovered--wasn't properly enrolled in the public high school. The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. As the town fractures, Angie must navigate conflicting narratives and wrestle with her own moral culpability. Meanwhile, Babur's painstaking efforts to shield Angie and protect his hard-earned efforts to assimilate overshadow his ability to see right from wrong.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	FICTION JAI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Oakdale Library	FICTION JAI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	FICTION JAI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	FICTION JAI	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi)	FICTION JAI	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick * NPR 1A Inaugural Book Club Pick * A 'Must-Read' by USA Today * Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize * Booklist Editor's Choice * CrimeReads' Best of the Year

A suspenseful drama about an immigrant family caught in a criminal investigation, perfect for readers of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You.

"Our Best Intentions is a thoughtful, gripping suspense that shakes up definitions of family and identity in a beautiful and refreshing way!" --Kal Penn, actor and national bestselling author

During summer break one day, Angie, the teenage daughter of Indian immigrant Babur Singh, is walking home after swimming at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a white classmate from a wealthy family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and--it's later discovered--wasn't properly enrolled in the public high school.

The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a gripping story about a father and daughter re-examining their familial bonds and place in the community that explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias are exposed.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Jain's riveting debut centers on a stabbing at a high school in affluent Westchester County, N.Y. While on the way to swimming practice, sophomore Angela Singh discovers her crush, Henry McCleary, collapsed and bleeding. After realizing he's been stabbed, she calls 911. As the story unfolds from various characters' points of view, the question is not who stabbed Henry, but why. Students, though, are quick to vilify Henry's assailant, Chiara Thomkins, a Black girl enrolled at the school who's been squatting on campus. As Henry, who is white, recuperates in the hospital, Chiara goes missing, and the McClearys' lawyer disparages Chiara for having used her cousin's address to attend the school. Henry, meanwhile, hides the fact that he and his friend Chris met Chiara to buy weed from her, and that Chris mocked her for being "homeless," held her down, and went through her bag. Also in the mix is Angela's father, Babur, an Uber driver and immigrant from India who has built up a fleet of cars to afford living in the school district for Angela's benefit, and who worries Angela's role in the affair will hurt her future. Jain excels at revealing each character's motivations and fears, and at how easily the truth can be distorted. This page-turner will stay with readers. Agent: Alexa Stark, Trident Media Group. (Mar.)

Kirkus Review

Coming-of-age drama meets suburban thriller in a debut novel driven by the question: What happens when people's best intentions threaten to cause more harm than good? Angela Singh wrestles with the typical teenage travails: worrying over the distance growing between her and her best friend, Sam McCleary; managing an unrequited crush on Sam's brother, Henry; training to stay competitive on the swim team; and navigating an often fraught relationship with her single dad, who's been raising her on his own since she was 6. However, her world is turned upside down when, walking home from swim practice one day, she finds Henry on the football field, having been stabbed in the abdomen. The affluent town of Kitchewan, New York, becomes enmeshed in a web of social politics, gossip, and backroom power plays as everyone attempts to defend their innocence. Or perhaps the incident merely uncovers the racial and economic tensions that always existed in the town, especially as Chiara Thompkins, a Black teenager, emerges at the center of the drama. Angela, whose memory of finding Henry remains blurry, must navigate her torn loyalties to her family and friends, self-preservation, and her sense of justice as she grows more deeply entangled in the community's investigation into what exactly happened that day at the school. Rotating among multiple perspectives and moving backward and forward in time, the novel intertwines teenage drama with an incisive intersectional exploration of the complexities of intergenerational immigrant families, class, and racism. Jain tackles the novel's themes effectively and subtly for the most part, especially in the beginning. The final chapters seem rushed, diluting the complexity and drama that made the first two-thirds so riveting and resulting in a too-tidy ending. A powerful, story-driven exploration of some of today's most pressing social issues. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

Babur Singh, an immigrant from India, moved to upscale Kitchewan for a promising future for his young daughter. Babur's wife leaves when Angela is six years old, and his reaction is to codify their lives into a series of routines designed to give Angela the best opportunities in life. Swimming becomes part of that routine, and it's why Angela, now a teenager, is at high school when Henry McCleary, her best friend's older brother, is stabbed on the football field. A terrified Angela stumbles across the scene and calls 911, and initial reports indicate that Chiara Thompkins, a young Black woman who fled an abusive household to live with her cousin, was behind the stabbing. But Chiara has disappeared, and control of the story belongs to Henry, his friend Chris, and Henry's parents, whose main focus is their son's reputation. As the investigation progresses, divisions arise in the community, with Angela stuck in the middle. Jain ably navigates between multiple points of view, sharing a variety of perspectives on the events and their aftermath to present a portrait of wealthy suburbia at its most toxic and insular. This moving, thought-provoking debut will be a hit with book clubs, and fans of Celeste Ng should take note.

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Helpful Links

Research Links

Contact

Events and Rooms

Follow Us

Today's Hours