From the acclaimed author of A Breath of Fresh Air, this beautiful novel takes us to modern India during the height of the summer�s mango season. Heat, passion, and controversy explode as a woman is forced to decide between romance and tradition.Every young Indian leaving the homeland for the United States is given the following orders by their parents: Don�t eat any cow (It�s still sacred!), don�t go out too much, save (and save, and save) your money, and most important, do not marry a foreigner. Priya Rao left India when she was twenty to study in the U.S., and she�s never been back. Now, seven years later, she�s out of excuses. She has to return and give her family the news: She�s engaged to Nick Collins, a kind, loving American man. It�s going to break their hearts.Returning to India is an overwhelming experience for Priya. When she was growing up, summer was all about mangoes�ripe, sweet mangoes, bursting with juices that dripped down your chin, hands, and neck. But after years away, she sweats as if she�s never been through an Indian summer before. Everything looks dirtier than she remembered. And things that used to seem natural (a buffalo strolling down a newly laid asphalt road, for example) now feel totally chaotic.But Priya�s relatives remain the same. Her mother and father insist that it�s time they arranged her marriage to a �nice Indian boy.� Her extended family talks of nothing but marriage�particularly the marriage of her uncle Anand, which still has them reeling. Not only did Anand marry a woman from another Indian state, but he also married for love. Happiness and love are not the point of her grandparents� or her parents� union. In her family�s rule book, duty is at the top of the list.Just as Priya begins to feel she can�t possibly tell her family that she�s engaged to an American, a secret is revealed that leaves her stunned and off-balance. Now she is forced to choose between the love of her family and Nick, the love of her life.As sharp and intoxicating as sugarcane juice bought fresh from a market cart, The Mango Season is a delightful trip into the heart and soul of both contemporary India and a woman on the edge of a profound life change. From the Hardcover edition.