Our Best IntentionsOur Best Intentions

"An immigrant family gets caught in the middle of a criminal investigation in this pulsating debut, perfect for readers of Everything I Never Told You and Ask Again, Yes"--
"Babur 'Bobby' Singh, single parent and owner of a fledgling rideshare business, remains ever hopeful about ascending the ladder of American success. He lives in an affluent suburb of New York with his daughter, Angie, an introverted teenager who is uncomfortable in her own skin unless she's swimming. During summer break, Angie is walking home after training at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a white classmate from a wealthy, prominent family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and who - it's later discovered - wasn't properly enrolled in the public high school. The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves. As the town fractures, Angie must navigate conflicting narratives and wrestle with her own moral culpability. Meanwhile, Babur's painstaking attempts to shield Angie and protect his hard-earned efforts to assimilate overshadow his ability to see right from wrong. Alternating between multiple perspectives, Our Best Intentions is a suspenseful drama about a father and daughter reexamining their familial bonds and place in the community. Both a gripping page-turner and an intimate portrait of an immigrant family, Vibhuti Jain's provocative debut explores how easily friendships, careers, communities, and individual lives can unravel when the toxicity of privilege and racial bias is exposed."