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Jennifer Acker
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The Limits of the World: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Jennifer Acker (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 96 ratings
See all formats and editions
A “smart, compassionate and elegant” debut novel about an Asian-Indian immigrant family from Nairobi and the secrets they keep from each other (Lauren Groff, author of Florida).
 
The Chandaria family—emigrants from the Asian-Indian enclave of Nairobi—has managed to flourish in America. Premchand, the father, is a doctor who has worked doggedly to grow his practice and give his family security; his wife, Urmila, runs a business importing artisanal Kenyan crafts; and their son, Sunil, after quitting the premed track, has been accepted to a PhD program in philosophy at Harvard.
 
But the parents have kept a very important secret from Sunil: His cousin, Bimal, is actually his older brother. When this previously hidden history is revealed by an unforeseen accident, and the entire family is forced to return to Nairobi, Sunil confesses his own well-kept, explosive secret: His Jewish-American girlfriend, who has accompanied him to Kenya, is, in fact, already his wife.
 
Spanning four generations and three continents, The Limits of the World illuminates the vast mosaic of cultural divisions and ethical considerations that shape the ways in which we judge one another’s actions. A dazzling debut novel—written with rare empathy and insight—it is a powerful depiction of how we prevent ourselves, unwittingly and otherwise, from understanding the people we are closest to.
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  1. Print length
    306 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Delphinium Books
  5. Publication date
    April 16, 2019
  6. File size
    1579 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Acker unwinds a complex intergenerational story of immigration, culture, family, partnership, and ethics in her skillful debut. Fans of Jhumpa Lahiri or Yaa Gyasi will want to check out Acker’s elegant saga.” Publishers Weekly
 
“Acker’s debut is a carefully drawn portrait of a family constrained by choices... a rare but honest look at the way parents, children, and spouses talk to one another but don’t always hear what’s being said. A thoughtful, deeply researched debut.” —Kirkus Reviews
 
“The Limits of the World is such a smart, compassionate, and elegant novel, so deeply invested in morality and the subtleties of families, cultures, and continents, that it feels delicious and exciting to recall that this is Jennifer Acker's début.” —Lauren Groff, author of Florida
 
“The Limits of the World is the most masterful debut novel I have read in years. In beautiful, understated prose, it shows the complicated ways in which family splits and regathers. In this wise, loving book I saw my mother’s family, exiled from Nairobi; I saw me.” —Suketu Mehta, author of Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
 
“Evocative and profound . . . an intimate novel about family that is, at the same time, an illumination of miscommunication across cultures, an exploration of the legacy of migration in both Africa and the US, and a philosophical rumination on ethical behaviors. Jennifer Acker’s is a wise and honest literary voice.” —Claire Messud, author of The Woman Upstairs
 
“The Limits of the World is a riveting and nuanced study of how we belong—to a lover, a family, a country. The prose is beautiful, the story is refreshingly original, and the characters are achingly human. The novel announces Acker as a writer of deep feeling and intelligence, a formidable writer whose talent is limitless.” —Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This
 
“The world of the 21st century is transnational, connected, and small, and the only remaining borders we have left are of our own design. From the Harvard Halls of Boston to the grassy plains of Nairobi, this unabashedly intelligent and beautiful book of generational conflict, culture clashes, and immigrant assimilation reminds us the limits of this world depend entirely on the sizes our hearts, our capacity to love ourselves and each other.” —Scott Cheshire, author of High as the Horses Bridle
 
“The Limits of the World travels vast distances, not only from India to Kenya to the United States, but also from grandfather to mother to son. A gorgeously written, bravely honest novel about moral philosophy and love: the difficult kind, the beautiful kind, and every other kind in between.” —Katherine Hill, author of The Violet Hour
 

About the Author

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, The Yale Review, and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and organizes LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. The Limits of the World is her debut novel.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07NGD5NHD
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Delphinium Books (April 16, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 16, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1579 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 306 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 96 ratings

About the author

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Jennifer Acker

Jennifer Acker

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Jennifer Acker is the author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, and she is the founder and editor in chief of The Common. Her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, the Yale Review, Off Assignment, and Ploughshares, among other publications. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. For more information, visit www.jenniferacker.com.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
96 global ratings
Loved being a part of these families!
5 Stars
Loved being a part of these families!
The Limits of the World is a book full of complicated, intriguing characters, and I read it quickly because I wanted to see what they would do next. The way the book moves through time, across continents, and between families also kept me reading - we were never in one place for too long, or with one character. I enjoyed all the different voices and sections, and learned a lot (in a fun way!) about the Indian diaspora, about Kenya, and even about life in academia. The way these characters discussed marriage, family, money, and homeland made me think a lot about how I value those things, too. Highly recommend the audiobook, which had great narrators that did a good job differentiating the character's narration. A wonderful read and a book I will read again!
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Top reviews from the United States

June Gervais
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating characters, vivid storytelling, graceful writing.
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2019
Verified Purchase
The deeper I traveled into THE LIMITS OF THE WORLD, the more attached I became to each of its four main characters--the complex and beautifully drawn Chandaria family. Sunil, the grown son, is a third-culture kid, raised in Ohio by parents who immigrated from Nairobi. To complicate matters further, his parents' community of origin is itself a sort of "third culture"--an Indian enclave in a Kenyan city--and each of his parents, Premchand and Urmila, has a drastically different take on the United States, what should be expected of a marriage, a family, a life--and not incidentally, their own son. Acker does an expert job entering these characters, and for me, most breathtaking of all was the first-person storytelling of an elderly grandfather, recounting the history of his Indian community in Nairobi; it felt as if the author was channeling this voice. If you love a novel that takes on big ideas, this one will satisfy; Sunil struggles to reconcile his work in philosophy with the reality of trying to live a moral life. But if you love a novel that brings you into close company with a complicated family, you'll enjoy this book, too--even (maybe especially) the unapologetically opinionated Urmila. I loved the hours I spent with these characters and the graceful, clean writing that brought them to life.
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Deanna
4.0 out of 5 stars Exotic and heartbreaking
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2020
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The relationship between child and parent is always difficult. The author twists you into the life of Sunil and his parents brilliantly.
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beMaine
5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book and a compelling read.
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2019
Verified Purchase
I thoroughly enjoyed this intelligent, honest book. It’s about generational conflict, miscommunication, adaptation, and immigration in a family over three continents and three generations. “He who roams advances”, taken from a Gujarati proverb, repeated by the grandfather, reflects the transitions from India to Kenya to the Midwest United States. As is so well articulated in The Limits of the World, advancement is not without difficulties.

Insightful and beautifully written, Acker has captured the cultural and individual aspects that create strife within families. The legacy of migration creates misunderstandings between generations raised in different cultures, compounding the conflicts between individuals and generations. It is a intricately woven saga: the Kenya-raised mother’s poignant struggle to understand and adapt to the US culture is in sharp contrast to the son’s ethical dilemma in his philosophy graduate program. I was also moved by the son’s “crisis of faith” —his struggle to resolve an ethical conflict in his philosophy graduate studies. This is a well done description that few outside of academia understand, and now we do.

The Limits of the World is a beautiful book and a compelling read.
One person found this helpful
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Achour A. M.
2.0 out of 5 stars Informative
Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2019
"The Limits of the World".is a sad and very hard reading.
Despite that I spent long time to finish this book, I did not feel the need to leave it away.

The writing style used by the author is direct. Characters are "harsh", anxious and full of doubts and uncertainty which make the reader have any pity or sorrow for their losses or misfortune.
Even though it is not the kind of literature I usually read, I was intersted by the topics addressed by this book. Immigration, tolerance and integration in a new society are current and sensitive issues.

Despite that I lived for more than 10 years in East Africa, I learnt more about Indian who came to the region. In this direction, the novel was informative and educational.

My rating is 2.5*
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R. Lee Barrett
4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling despite its flaws
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2019
The Limits of the World is a multi-generation examination of family ties, and family secrets, spanning many continents. The span and scope of the novel may prove to be its downfall. Ambitious for a debut novel, there are a lot of moving pieces to this work and the cohesiveness is sometimes lacking. For a reader that does not have a cultural baseline, there are some important character development moments that are surely missed. One of the primary characters is sporadically riddled with angst over his philosophy thesis and the narrative takes the reader entirely too far into the rabbit hole on this front. The chapters from the eldest generation sometimes feels thrown in as a footnoted afterthought. The family dynamic does not seem to be nearly as sharp as it should have been given the family "secret."
Despite all these distractions, I found myself oddly drawn back into the book night after night. The otherwise out of place chapters from the eldest characters provided historical and cultural mile markers that really spoke to me. Although shallow in presentation, the narrative's exploration of a modern, multi-cultural marriage was still effective. I wanted to dislike the book, but I honestly couldn't. The cynic doesn't care if the book gets read, just that it gets purchased. Acker gets a victory here, if the book is purchased, its likely going to be read as well.

This review is based on an advanced reader's copy provided by the publisher.
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Steve
5.0 out of 5 stars A literary tapestry
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2019
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Ms. Acker skillfully weaves into a well designed literary tapestry three different story lines - family conflict brought about by cultural and personality differences, a young man's struggle to identify the underpinnings of morality, and the challenges confronting the Indian community in East Africa in the face of increasing African nationalism. In prose that is simple and straightforward, she captures the complex nature of each of these themes. Her treatment of the mother has the reader vacillating between sympathy (given that neither her husband nor her home were of her choosing) and frustration (her rigidity prevents her from overcoming her lack of connection with family and country). In short, Ms. Acker has produced a thought-provoking novel that I greatly enjoyed reading.
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Top reviews from other countries

Mandy Rattner
5.0 out of 5 stars A phenomenal read!
Reviewed in Canada on February 3, 2020
Verified Purchase
It is not often that one comes across a novel which is a treasure of resources. This is being used to weave a beautiful story about family ties, the difficulty of adjusting to the new life as an immigrant, mixed marriage, friendship, history, academic achievement, politics.
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