
Join AAWW in-person and online for a celebration of Nayantara Roy’s The Magnificent Ruins, a “rare feast” of a novel in which a young Indian American book editor inherits her estranged family’s ancestral home–and their long-buried secrets (Rachel Lyon, author of Self-Portrait With Boy)! Nayantara will be in conversation with writer Nina Sharma, and the evening will feature performances by Aditi Misra, Shayon Maitra, and Priya Roy.
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It is the summer of 2015, and Lila De is on the verge of a breakthrough in her career at a prestigious New York publishing house. But when she gets a call from her mother in India, informing her that she’s inherited her family’s sprawling estate, she must confront the legacy of an extended family that she thought she left behind sixteen years ago.
Returning to Kolkata reunites Lila with her mother after a decade of estrangement, and then there are her grandmother, aunts, uncles, and cousins, all of whom still live in the house, all of whom resent her sudden inheritance. To make matters more complicated, her first boyfriend seeks her out when she arrives, and her star author—and occasional lover—is suddenly determined to make things serious.
As Lila tries to come to terms with both past and present, long-suppressed secrets from her family emerge, culminating in an act of shocking violence, and she must finally reckon with her inherited custom of keeping everything under the surface.
Wise, witty, and deeply moving, The Magnificent Ruins is an utterly addictive read and a stunning debut.
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Nayantara Roy is the author of THE MAGNIFICENT RUINS which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice novel of 2024, an LA Times Editor’s Pick, a Washington Post Best Book, a People Magazine Best Book, an Apple best debut, a Hachette book club pick and a Gold House book club pick amongst others. Her second novel, SISTERS OF THE HALVED HEART is forthcoming from Little Brown in the spring of 2026. In 2018, Roy won the Rick De Marines award for her short story 8C. Her plays have been performed internationally, in the UK and India. By day, she is the Senior Vice President of Television at Sandbox Entertainment where she acquires and develops original scripted series. Roy lives in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.
Nina Sharma is the author of THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL: INTERRACIAL LOVE IN BLACK AND BROWN. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Electric Literature, Women’s Studies Quarterly, Longreads, and The Margins, among other publications. She received her MFA in writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and has been awarded residencies from Vermont Studio Center and St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency. Nina is formerly the Programs Director at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and with Quincy Scott Jones she co-created Blackshop, a column that thinks about allyship between BIPOC people, featured on Anomaly. A two-time Asian Women Giving Circle grantee for her workshop, “No Name Mind: Stories of Mental Health from Asian America,” she currently teaches at Barnard College and Columbia University. Nina is a proud co-founder of Not Your Biwi Improv.
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COMMUNITY CARE & ACCESSIBILITY
At AAWW, the safety and comfort of our community is our top priority. We invite you to practice intentionality and care in your behavior and language when engaging with our programs and with each other. Violence of any kind, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, ageism, class or casteism, bigotry or bias toward religion or faith, or any action or assault against marginalized identities, is not tolerated. Those who bring harm to our community in person or online are not welcome, and will be asked to exit the space.
The event will be live streamed on Zoom with auto captioning for those who cannot join us in person. For those joining us in person, we are located on the 6th floor of 112 W 27th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), there is an elevator that will take you directly to our office. To protect our friends with chemical sensitivities, AAWW is a fragrance-free space. Masks are required for audience members for all AAWW events; if you forget yours, one will be provided for you. We have three commercial grade air purifiers, and a quiet room in the back should you need some space from the crowd. We highly encourage all in person guests to take a COVID test at home prior to the event. If you have had COVID or have had known contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID in the 10 days prior, we ask you tune in for the live stream instead. Please reach out to msaleh@aaww.org for additional accessibility requests, including ADA accessible bathrooms, chairs with added back support, and beyond. This space is for YOU!