Family Life is a semi-autobiographical novel by Akhil Sharma. It is the second novel of Akhil Sharma, which cost him years of hardship and stress emotional to write. It was published in 2014 and was published to wide critical acclaim. The New York Times described the novel as "deeply disturbing and beautifully tender in its essence." and surprising, proof of Sharma's enormous and unique talent". the Folio Prize for Fiction 2015 and the Dublin International Literary Prize 2016. Family Life depicts the life of Ajay Mishra (modeled on Akhil Sharma himself ) as he struggles to grow up in a family shattered by loss and disoriented by a recent move from India to America It's also the story of Ajay's parents, whose reaction to. grief makes them unable to find the space in which to cherish and nurture it. Say no to plagiarism Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”. The book opens in Delhi, India, in the late 1970s, where eight-year-old Ajay and his older brother Birju, twelve, are eagerly awaiting their move to America. Their departure is so bad that townspeople gather just to take a look at their plane tickets. Mr. Rajinder Mishra craves the glamor of Western science so much that he regularly has his urine tested in a laboratory. Reflecting on his father's superfluous nature, Ajay wonders if he was assigned to them by the government. Ajay is eight years old when the story begins, and Sharma tells the saga from his point of view, adopting the acute perception and simple language of a child. Arriving at their new home in Queens, they struggle to understand what Ajay describes as "the richness of America." Everything amazes them, from the size of libraries to the frequency of television programs. In America, everything seems miraculous, from the hot water flowing from a faucet to the carpet in their new apartment When Ajay presses a button in an elevator, he says, "I felt powerful thinking that. he must obey me." When Mr. Mishra offers his sons fifty cents for each library book they read, Ajay wonders if his father has become too American: an Indian father would have threatened to beat them. if they weren't reading. In America, Mr. Mishra works as a clerk in a government agency while Mrs. Mishra (Shuba) is content as a worker in a garment factory. After Birju, Ajay's elder brother, has been accepted into a prestigious high school in the Bronx, this innocent and enthusiastic family feels secure in their future. After all, Birju's education ultimately leads to a career as a doctor. Like a typical Indian family, they open the school's admission letter at the temple, kneeling in front of an idol of the Hindu god Ram. While trying to differentiate Indian temples from American temples, Ajay says, “In India, however, the temples also smelled of flowers, of the sweat of crowds, of the spoilage of the milk used to bathe the idols. Here, with the smell of incense. , there was only a slight smell of mold. Because the temple smelled so simple, it seemed fake. Tragically, just before Birju is about to start his new high school, he meets with an accident. He hits his head in a swimming pool and. remains unconscious underwater for three minutes, resulting in severe brain damage that lasts his life. He is now blind and can no longer speak or walk. He suffered catastrophic head injuries and is doomed to die. The future is replaced by a terrible nothingness – not only for Birju himself but also for his parents and brother. When 10-year-old Ajay first learns of the accident,..