Homework — Suneeta Peres da Costa

An enchanting, magical-realist coming-of-age story about an unconventional childhood.

Mina Pereira longs to be normal, and it's no wonder-with barometric antennae wired to her brain she feels like an outcast. Her overwhelmingly precocious sister, Deepa, who's read all of Dostoevsky by the time she is eight years old, and her younger sister, Shanti, painfully normal beyond reproach, don't help matters either. When an illness leaves Mina's mother barren and literally roosting in trees, Mina finds solace in the special bond she shares with her father. But as her beloved father escapes to the basement of their house to get away from his increasingly crazy wife, madness takes hold of Mina's family, and the house they live in falls into chaotic disrepair-until Dad tinkers one time too many with disastrous results. Through all of the heartache of Mina's childhood, she comes to an understanding about love and family-with maturity, clarity and ultimately, a deep humanity.