We follow misfit Anjali, the expensively educated daughter of an affluent family, from her early years in Calcutta to her coming-of-age in New York City, claiming the seedy dive bars of the East Village as her own, in six interconnected, eerie vignettes that span two continents and two decades. We also encounter Anita, a friend from childhood who now lives in a suburb of Ohio and struggles with the quieter life she has chosen, marriage, and parenthood. These are women who put all of their guts and determination into finding their place in the world. In the novel Not Quite a Disaster after All, it is discussed how our expectations from life can be pushed in the most unexpected directions. It concerns the thin line between self-destruction and survival. It is, equally, about falling in love-with a person, a city, or simply with the alluring, exciting promise of the new. Deceptively simple in its telling, and gently ironic, a nuanced narrative of depth and power, it marks the arrival of an outstanding voice in fiction.