With this collection of beautifully written, interconnected stories, Nalini Jones establishes herself as a strong, new voice in contemporary fiction. Home to her characters is a Catholic town in India—an India unfamiliar to most American readers—but the tales of their relationships, ambitions, and concerns are altogether universal, capturing the miscommunication, expectations, joys, and losses experienced by families everywhere.

A mother pours her religious fervor out in letters to her son whom she has sent away to seminary. Years after his father’s sudden death in a movie theater, an older man begins to see his long-dead parent riding a bicycle around town. A brash, eccentric aunt speaks her mind and leaves home without a trace, but not without haunting her godson. Returning home to tend to her mother’s cataract surgery, a daughter wonders how much she should reveal of her new life in the United States. American childhoods, Indian childhoods; love abroad, love at home—the worlds of these characters mirror and refract one another in a play of revelation and secret.

Gracefully and with deep emotional intelligence, Jones vividly evokes the ebb and flow of life across several generations and continents. What You Call Winter is a resonant, beguiling fiction debut.

"In her auspicious debut, Jones reveals the hopes and disappointments of young children, mothers and old men living in Santa Clara, a mostly Catholic suburb of Mumbai, India. It covers all the ground between six-year-old Jude Almeida, who in the story "The Crow and the Monkey"witnesses his godmother's wild antics at the New Year party, and 77-year old Roddy D'Souza, who in the title story is haunted by visions of his dead father. The opening story, "In the Garden," is a gem: at home alone on the verge of her 10th birthday, Marian Almeida discovers and tries on the dress that is intended to be her gift. Simply plotted, the story evokes the weight of expectations of a girl about to enter adolescence. Similar themes are fleshed out in "This Is Your Home Also" and the devastating "We Think of You Every Day," both of which also explore childhood vulnerabilities. Adulthood, however, offers a wider perspective; in "The Bold and the Beautiful" and "Home for a Short Time," characters reconcile themselves with their decisions — one leaves her mother behind for a new life in the United States, while another stays in India. Jones displays impressive scope and depth of sympathy in her first collection." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"'In her auspicious debut, Jones reveals the hopes and disappointments of young children, mothers and old men living in Santa Clara, a mostly Catholic suburb of Mumbai, India. It covers all the ground between six-year-old Jude Almeida, who in the story 'The Crow and the Monkey'witnesses his godmother's wild antics at the New Year party, and 77-year old Roddy D'Souza, who in the title story is haunted by visions of his dead father. The opening story, 'In the Garden,' is a gem: at home alone on the verge of her 10th birthday, Marian Almeida discovers and tries on the dress that is intended to be her gift. Simply plotted, the story evokes the weight of expectations of a girl about to enter adolescence. Similar themes are fleshed out in 'This Is Your Home Also' and the devastating 'We Think of You Every Day,' both of which also explore childhood vulnerabilities. Adulthood, however, offers a wider perspective; in 'The Bold and the Beautiful' and 'Home for a Short Time,' characters reconcile themselves with their decisions — one leaves her mother behind for a new life in the United States, while another stays in India. Jones displays impressive scope and depth of sympathy in her first collection.' Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

“Nalini Jones writes about the marginal community of Christians in Bombay and the neighborhoods in which they live. To the outsider, these seem to possess a fabled calm, but the insider knows they are in many ways on the brink of dissolution. Jones combines the outsider's wonder with an insider's shrewdness, and walks the line between the two with genuine intelligence and skill: she's a terrific writer.”

Amit Chaudhuri

“How does she do it? A child, a family, a household, a community, a faith, an era–and suddenly What You Call Winter is so much more than the sum of its parts. Delightful and deeply moving, here are nine elegantly interconnected tales which introduce a world new in American fiction. The eye is keen, the voice is intimate, and Nalini Jones has made an important debut.”

Dave King, author of The Ha-Ha

“With elegance and care, Nalini Jones has brilliantly conjured up the lost world of Catholic India. Her well-wrought tales ring true and her themes of love, loss, and family are universal. In this book, she combines a deep cultural and emotional intelligence–a truly fine balance.”

Fareed Zakaria

Nalini Jones was born in Newport, Rhode Island, graduated from Amherst College, and received an M.F.A. from Columbia University. She is a Stanford Calderwood Fellow of the MacDowell Colony, and has recently taught at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and at Fairfield University in Connecticut. She lives in Norwalk, Connecticut.