Lightning People

This impressive first novel is so dense that it feels like several books in one. It tells the overlapping stories of five young adults living in New York City: Joseph, an actor with a tragic family history; his new wife, Del, who works at the zoo while seeking U.S. citizenship; Del's former lover Raj, a photographer who's afraid to leave his room; Raj's sister, Madi, who is exploiting her father's native India for commercial success; and William, an actor whose inability to find work leads him to increasingly desperate and dangerous measures. Set against a post-9/11 backdrop, the book is united by the theme of fate and whether we can evade its clutches. While this theme is intriguing and leads to some satisfying twists, the novel's greater appeal lies in the immensely detailed lives of the characters, especially in Del's love of snakes at a job made miserable by her boss and in William's sometimes humorous, sometimes horrifying downward spiral.