America for Beginners

America for Beginners
Leah Franqui

Sometimes you have to go a long way to find what you’re looking for. And sometimes a little beginner’s luck is all you need…• Welcome to the First Class India USA Destination Vacation Tour Company•• One fixed itinerary, one fixed price•• All levels catered for•• No refunds• BeginnerRecently widowed Pival Sengupta has never travelled alone before and her first trip to this strange country masks a secret agenda: to find out the truth about her long-estranged son.IntermediateSatya, her guileless and resourceful tour guide, has been in America for less than a year – and has never actually left the five boroughs of New York.AdvancedAn aspiring/failing actress, Rebecca signed up for the role of Pival’s modesty companion; it might not be her big break but surely it’ll break her out of the rut she’s stuck in.As their preconceptions about each other and about America are challenged, with a little beginner’s luck, these unlikely companions might learn how to live again.A big-hearted, hilarious tale of forgiveness, hope, and acceptance, reminding us that there is no roadmap to life.

Copyright (#u16dd66b8-a7cf-59ad-a6f1-0eaa93195b4e)

Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London, SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

First published in the UK by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

Copyright © Leah Franqui 2018

Jacket design and illustration by Micaela Alcaino @HarperCollinsPublishers 2018

Leah Franqui asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008229139

Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008229153

Version: 2018-06-27

Dedication (#u16dd66b8-a7cf-59ad-a6f1-0eaa93195b4e)

For Rohan, who told me I should

and

For my family, who always knew I could

Epigraph (#u16dd66b8-a7cf-59ad-a6f1-0eaa93195b4e)

Flying toward thankfulness, you become

the rare bird with one wing made of fear,

and one of hope. In autumn,

a rose crawling along the ground in the cold wind.

Rain on the roof runs down and out by the spout

as fast as it can.

Talking is pain. Lie down and rest,

now that you’ve found a friend to be with.

—Rabindranath Tagore

Contents

Cover (#u6387d1ac-7438-56fc-badb-10ff12af2dfd)

Title Page (#uee5153de-e862-5e3b-b3a0-ee6d1e105943)

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

Chapter 1 (#u5fc75403-010a-5460-8e8e-83aae79fd374)

Chapter 2 (#u72aa7ac4-d159-543d-be47-b91a8caecfcb)

Chapter 3 (#uc17ebb71-6a21-5b20-ba9c-6ae41184ccbd)

Chapter 4 (#uae08ea72-c351-58ca-9c13-6c69c584fadf)

Chapter 5 (#u076a2a4a-cade-54f3-bd5e-2f9a992fd5f0)

Chapter 6 (#u788b0003-156a-5087-bbd3-4c745443cbd2)

Chapter 7 (#ub2a7164a-b4f8-5295-8da2-4f3fa5943381)

Chapter 8 (#u699dbcf3-051c-5ae0-afa6-cfb670357a5a)

Chapter 9 (#u8beef432-eafc-5178-9c3c-da4a2fab81ac)

Chapter 10 (#u8e1cb265-30f8-5b34-bbc1-097908b1eac8)

Chapter 11 (#u1ecf7486-7ee9-5e5b-baac-ca11eca87065)

Chapter 12 (#u6f2ad047-344e-5375-ac40-76a3c78602c8)

Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)