Why a Booktrail?
1970s, 2000s: The story of a family, divided across generations and cultures, wrestling with its future and its past
The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing
What you need to know before your trail
1979, Salem India
Of all the family gatherings in her childhood, one stands out in Amina’s memory. A visit to her grandmother’s house which escalates into an explosive encounter, pitching brother against brother, mother against son.
Immediately following this, Amina’s father Thomas rushes his family back to their new home in America. And while at first it seems that the intercontinental flight has taken them out of harm’s way, it hasn’t. Another chain of events has been put into place.
Twenty years later, Amina receives a phone call from her mother. She returns to the New Mexico of her childhood but getting to the truth is not going to be easy.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Going back to visit your family in Salem, India in 1979 after you’ve gone and moved to America and have lived there for many years can not be easy. Two cultures and two very different ways of life.But the country where you are born always lays a claim to you and so going to your own country as a stranger is difficult as well as being home
Seattle
Amina moved to Seattle, but spends much of the book in Albuquerque as this is the city where her parents and other family members live. She is the only one in her family to have been born in America so has a unique view on culture and the two backgrounds.
Crown Hill
The apartments where the novel opens is here. The Crown Hill area is residential and has a cemetery. In the novel it’s described as having once been a good area for low income and middle income families but now they’re nothing more than “piss coloured with air bubbles which snapped when stepped on”
Alberquerque
New Mexico. Most of the novel takes place in Alberquerque
Kamala, the mother of the family and the true patriarch, never truly settled in America. She’s very keen to preserve as many of the Indian ways as possible and in New Mexico, they are one of the few Indian families in the city.
India
Mira Jacob really should have put recipes in this book as the fragrance and taste of India food is infused on each and every page. So vivid and so much a part of the culture, you can see and taste the food as you read, and makes you feel as if you’re sitting around the table with the family as part of their story. Food is a very special part of Indian culture and this is evoked vividly and cleverly into the novel
Booktrail Boarding Pass Information: The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing
Author/ Guide: Mira Jacob Destination: Salem, Alberquerque Departure Time: 1979, 1998
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
