The Illicit Happiness of Other People: A Novel

A quirky and darkly comic take on domestic life in southern India.

Ousep Chacko, journalist and failed novelist, prides himself on being the last of the real men. This includes waking neighbors upon returning late from the pub. His wife Mariamma stretches their money, raises their two boys, and, in her spare time, gleefully fantasizes about Ousep dying. One day, their seemingly happy seventeen-year-old son Unnian obsessed comic-book artistfalls from the balcony, leaving them to wonder whether it was an accident. Three years later, Ousep receives a package that sends him searching for the answer, hounding his sons former friends, attending a cartoonists meeting, and even accosting a famous neurosurgeon. Meanwhile, younger son Thoma, missing his brother, falls head over heels for the much older girl who befriended them both. Haughty and beautiful, she has her own secrets. The Illicit Happiness of Other Peoplea smart, wry, and poignant novelteases you with its mystery, philosophy, and unlikely love story.