'The Windfall' by Professor Diksha Basu '14 Selected as Lilly's Library April Book Club Read

The Windfall (Crown, 2017) by Assistant Professor Diksha Basu '14 was recently chosen by comedian and actress Lilly Singh as her April book club read. The Windfall was Basu's debut novel and is available for purchase here.

The Windfall follows the lives of an Indian couple in Delhi who are unexpectedly catapulted from their middle-class life into massive wealth. When Mr. and Mrs. Jha leave their housing complex in East Delhi for a mansion in the prosperous suburb of Gurgaon, the Jha family discovers what it means to be rich in modern India as they struggle to fit in.

Lilly Singh founded her virtual book club, Lilly's Library, to celebrate South Asian stories around the globe. Each month, Singh spotlights a different book and readers can follow along on Instagram, Twitter, and virtual book chats. The Windfall is Lilly's Library's third and latest selection. 

"It is through stories that we understand ourselves and the world around us. And I know from experience that seeing yourself in a story can have such an incredible impact. One in four people on the planet are South Asian, yet our stories are seldom given a platform on a global level. This is my effort to change that and give more people that magical feeling," Singh stated in an Instagram post.

Originally from New Delhi, India, Basu is the internationally best-selling author of The Windfall (a People Magazine pick, NYTimes Editor's Pick, Time Magazine Pick, Target Diverse Book Club pick, and more) and Destination Wedding (shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize), both of which are currently in development for the screen. She was a columnist at Mint Lounge and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Vogue, The BBC, NYMag, and several other publications. She holds a Bachelors in Economics and French Literature from Cornell University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University.