Optional Practical Training
Optional Practical Training
Low stock: 3 left
Couldn't load pickup availability
An elegantly inventive debut novel that offers a sharp new take on the immigrant story in post-9/11 America
Told as a series of conversations, Optional Practical Training follows Pavitra, a young Indian woman who came to the US for college from Bangalore, India, and graduates in 2006 with a degree in physics. Her student visa grants her an extra twelve months in the country for work experience--a period known as Optional Practical Training--so she takes a position as a math and physics teacher at a private high school near Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What Pavitra really wants, though, is the time and space to finish a novel--to diverge from what's expected of her within her family of white-collar professionals and to build a life as a writer. Navigating her year of OPT--looking for a room to rent, starting her job--she finds that each person she encounters expects something from her too. As her landlord, colleagues, students, parents of her students, friends of her family, and neighbors talk to and at her, they shape her understanding of race, immigration, privilege, and herself.
Throughout the book, Pavitra seems to speak very rarely; and yet, as she responds to the assumptions, insights, projections, and observations of those around her, a subtle and sophisticated portrait emerges of a young woman and aspiring artist defining a place for herself in the world.
Share

Our Best sellers
-
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
Vendor:Avery Publishing Group4.68 / 5.0
(50) 50 total reviews
Regular price $18.99 USDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Chaos: Charles Manson, the Cia, and the Secret History of the Sixties
Vendor:Back Bay BooksRegular price From $14.95 USDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Cry Baby Coloring Book
Vendor:Ulysses PressRegular price $6.95 USDRegular priceUnit price / per -
El Club de Cómics de Supergatito: A Propósito (Cat Kid Comic Club: On Purpose)
Vendor:Scholastic en EspanolRegular price $13.26 USDRegular priceUnit price / per -
The Pfizer Papers: Pfizer's Crimes Against Humanity
Vendor:War Room BooksRegular price $27.00 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$39.99 USDSale price $27.00 USDSale -
The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement
Vendor:ThesisRegular price $21.68 USDRegular priceUnit price / per$32.00 USDSale price $21.68 USDSale