They Called Us Exceptional Audiobook Libro.fm

In this vulnerable and courageous memoir Prachi Gupta takes the myth of the exceptional Indian American family to taskThe Washington Post

I read it in one sitting Wow It aims right at the tender spot where racism sexism and family dynamics collide and somehow manages to be both searingly honest and deeply compassionateCeleste Ng New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

A SHE READS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE SEASON The New York Times The Washington Post The Boston Globe Bustle

How do we understand ourselves when the story about who we are supposed to be is stronger than our sense of self What do we stand to gainand loseby taking control of our narrative

Family defined the cultural identity of Prachi and her brother Yush connecting them to a larger Indian American community amid white suburbia But their belonging was predicated on a powerful myth the idea that Asian Americans and Indian Americans in particular have perfected the alchemy of middleclass life raising tightknit highachieving families that are immune to hardship Molding oneself to fit this image often comes at a steep but hidden cost In They Called Us Exceptional Gupta articulates the dissonance shame and isolation of being upheld as an American success story while privately navigating traumas the world says do not exist

Gupta addresses her story to her mother braiding a deeply vulnerable personal narrative with history postcolonial theory and research on mental health to show how she slowly made sense of her reality and freed herself from the pervasive reductive myth that had once defined her But tragically the act that liberated Gupta was also the act that distanced her from those she loved most By charting her familys slow unraveling and her determination to break the cycle Gupta shows how traditional notions of success keep us disconnected from ourselves and one anotherand passionately argues why we must orient ourselves toward compassion over belonging