"The Laughter" by Sonora Jha with Nalini Iyer

901 12th Ave,Seattle WA 98122

07 March, 2023

Description

Author Sonora Jha and her colleague, Nalini Iyer, discuss her new work of literary fiction, which has been described as tense, explosive, and illuminating. It perfectly captures the privilege, radicalization, race, and class tensions that simmer in the world of modern academia and in present-day America. Booklist calls it "a complete triumph." Our partner, Elliott Bay Book Company will be onsite, with books available for purchase at the event. Seattle University students, staff, and faculty receive a 20% discount. Rave reviews keep coming!“Jha impressively avoids the trap of preachiness and moralizing that stories of identity politics on campus tend to fall into; rather, hers is a subtle and nuanced look at the subject. The novel plants seeds that turn out to be red herrings, building layer upon layer of assumptions—about campus culture, identity politics, religion, East versus West, racism, and terrorism. . . . A powerful and darkly funny campus novel with an unexpected narrative perspective.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A masterfully told, thrilling investigation of privilege, heritage and exoticization set against the backdrop of the American college campus. . . Deeply complex and meaningful yet still an enthralling read, The Laughter is an ambitious novel that explores American social dynamics while never being preachy or overbearing. . . It’s a must-read for those seeking to understand today and dream of a better tomorrow.” — Langston Collin Wilkins, BookPage (starred review) “Readers will become immersed in Sonora Jha’s brilliantly crafted world, which explores the intersection of the politics of college campuses and a wild obsession.” — The Best Books for February 2023, Shondaland “Astutely provoking, deeply disturbing and unexpectedly delightful. . . . Jha is an extraordinary storyteller, aiming her shrewd erudition directly at elitism, sexism and racism.” — Shelf Awareness “[This] bitingly satirical tale of a maddeningly clever yet frustratingly myopic protagonist is a gem. . . Examining old prejudices, new fixations, and the sting of unrequited love, Jha offers a complete triumph.”.” — Stephanie Turza, Booklist “…wickedly funny and politically astute…Darkly funny and occasionally grim, this novel asks academia to examine itself and to determine how it might serve a vastly diverse, politically engaged community.” — Nalini Iyer, International Examiner “Tense and propulsive . . . Jha’s gripping passion play will shock readers.” — Publishers Weekly “…fiction that has been masterfully laced with the same opportunities for comfort and discussion that non-fiction offers all while, somehow, having an insufferable Chesterton-obsessed white professor, Oliver Harding, as the narrator. — Kali Herbst Minino, The Spectator 'Sonora Jha expertly inhabits the perspective of a man so terrified of the old world slipping away, he can’t see the ground shifting beneath his feet. A deliciously sharp, mercilessly perceptive exploration of power, The Laughter explores how ‘otherness’ is both fetishized and demonized, and what it means to love something—a person, a country—that does not love you back.' — Celeste Ng, New York Times-bestselling author of Our Missing Hearts “The Laughter is a brilliant, dangerous novel. What Sonora Jha has done in this razorblade-tense story is create one of the most infuriating, compelling, and complex characters I’ve read in a long time, a man so at war with himself he threatens to come apart at the seams. Jha is an expert chronicler of the way civility and privilege can often mask such immense, ruinous rage, and what begins as a tale of a professor’s infatuation with his colleague soon spirals into something far more sinister, a cascade of individual and institutional malice.” — Omar El Akkad, author of American War and What Strange Paradise 'Lush, chilling, and admirably complex, The Laughter is wonderful: A book full of sly wisdom, cutting insight, and heart-pounding suspense.' — Julia May Jonas, author of Vladimir “Sonora Jha’s The Laughter takes the old suffocating male narcissist of Coetzee’s Disgrace and Nabokov’s Lolita and gives him new, previously unexplored dimension with a modern dissection of the Whiteness at his core. Dr. Oliver Harding is the best type of narrator—one whose rich character makes his profound flaws fascinating on the page, and author Jha’s inspired prose channels him as if possessed.” — Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Invisible Things About the authorSonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son (2021) and the novel Foreign (2013). After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a PhD in media and public affairs. Dr. Jha's op-eds, essays, and public appearances have been featured in the New York Times, on the BBC, in anthologies, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism in the Communication and Media Department and Associate Dean of Academic Community in the College of Arts & Sciences at Seattle University. About the interviewerNalini Iyer is Professor of English at Seattle University. She teaches courses in postcolonial South Asian and African writing, diaspora studies, and transnational feminisms. Her books include the following: Other Tongues: Rethinking the Language Debates in India (2009); Roots and Reflections: South Asians in the Pacific Northwest (2013); and Revisiting India’s Partition: New Essays in Memory, Culture, and Politics (2016). She has also published articles in ARIEL, South Asian Review, and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. She is the Chief Editor of South Asian Review.