THEN, NOW, ALWAYS

Single mother Maya Rao seems even more real, thanks to narrator Soneela Nankani's lilting Indian accent with its subtle British flavor. Maya's second-chance love story emerges through flashbacks between the years 1996 and 2012. Her youthful romance with law student Sam Hutcherson resulted in a child, who is revealed to Sam 16 years later. Nankani narrates alternating chapters from Maya and Sam. Well-differentiated characters include Maya, Sam, and Sam's strong-willed mother. Sam speaks with an American accent, and his mother with a definitive Indian accent. As Sam and Maya reconnect in New York City, past misunderstandings are unraveled through Nankani's measured storytelling. Nankani mirrors Maya's trepidation and Sam's consternation in Shroff's clean romance whose simple premise owes its charm to details of Indian-American food and culture. C.A. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2020]