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Chitra Demands to Go Home
Chitra Demands to Go Home tells the story of Chitra, a 75-year-old Bengali woman who feels trapped in an assisted living facility and just wants to go home.
Chitra spent her life taking care of her children and her husband in a foreign country and managing a grand house in Kolkata, India. Now, in her mid-seventies, widowed, and with her children living their own lives, Chitra plans to travel the world and enjoy the hospitality granted to respected family elders.
However, her plans are upended when she suffers a stroke and her younger son has a heart attack. Chitra then finds herself among American strangers in the institutional blandness of Tranquil Town, an assisted living facility in Columbus, Ohio. As her temporary stay stretches longer and longer, Chitra does everything she can to avoid making friends and convince her sons to take her home.
Describing both the bitter and the sweet, Chitra Demands to Go Home explores mother-son relationships, cross-cultural conversations, and the tribulations of getting older as Chitra plots her triumphant return to her home in Kolkata.
Chitra spent her life taking care of her children and her husband in a foreign country and managing a grand house in Kolkata, India. Now, in her mid-seventies, widowed, and with her children living their own lives, Chitra plans to travel the world and enjoy the hospitality granted to respected family elders.
However, her plans are upended when she suffers a stroke and her younger son has a heart attack. Chitra then finds herself among American strangers in the institutional blandness of Tranquil Town, an assisted living facility in Columbus, Ohio. As her temporary stay stretches longer and longer, Chitra does everything she can to avoid making friends and convince her sons to take her home.
Describing both the bitter and the sweet, Chitra Demands to Go Home explores mother-son relationships, cross-cultural conversations, and the tribulations of getting older as Chitra plots her triumphant return to her home in Kolkata.
192 pages, Paperback
Published May 12, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 19, 2026
CW: medical content, death of a child (in the past), and grief.
It is rare that a book makes me laugh out loud and sob all in one sitting. I LOVED it! Highly recommend.
Chitra is a prickly matriarch who is set on returning to her home in Kolkata, India. The problem? She recently had a stroke, and needs caregiving. So, Chitra's sons check her into Tranquil Town, a caregiving center in Columbus Ohio near her younger son Prodosh.
This book is so human. Chitra feels that she deserves to be cared for by her children because she spent years taking care of them and raising them. Her son Prodosh and his wife Kathy are dealing with their own failing bodies while raising twin girls. I think there are so many people who are middle-aged with aging parents that will relate to this story. I know it resonated with me.
My favorite part of the book was the friendship between Chitra and Helen. The growth that Chitra had through her friendship with Helen was so beautiful. The way the two women were able to bond through their shared experience was really lovely. It is such a good reminder that if we want to make a friend we need to be a friend. And apologies matter. Showing gratitude matters!
I just loved this book. Thank you for Modert Artist Press for sending me an advanced reader copy in exchange for a thoughtful/honest review.
It is rare that a book makes me laugh out loud and sob all in one sitting. I LOVED it! Highly recommend.
Chitra is a prickly matriarch who is set on returning to her home in Kolkata, India. The problem? She recently had a stroke, and needs caregiving. So, Chitra's sons check her into Tranquil Town, a caregiving center in Columbus Ohio near her younger son Prodosh.
This book is so human. Chitra feels that she deserves to be cared for by her children because she spent years taking care of them and raising them. Her son Prodosh and his wife Kathy are dealing with their own failing bodies while raising twin girls. I think there are so many people who are middle-aged with aging parents that will relate to this story. I know it resonated with me.
My favorite part of the book was the friendship between Chitra and Helen. The growth that Chitra had through her friendship with Helen was so beautiful. The way the two women were able to bond through their shared experience was really lovely. It is such a good reminder that if we want to make a friend we need to be a friend. And apologies matter. Showing gratitude matters!
I just loved this book. Thank you for Modert Artist Press for sending me an advanced reader copy in exchange for a thoughtful/honest review.
May 12, 2026
Thanks Modern Artist Press for the gifted ARC book.
Though she moved to the US and raised her family there, Chitra continued to maintain her house in India throughout the years. Now an elderly widow, Chitra is desperate to return to India after her sons place her in an American assisted living facility following her stroke. Her temporary stay becomes more and more extended. Chitra becomes more and more determined to go home.
I absolutely adored Chitra Demands to Go Home! I was laughing and crying. Mukhopadhyay’s characters were deeply compelling, feeling so genuine. The realistic plot made this an especially poignant read. I loved seeing Chitra’s development.
Themes of aging, caregiving, cultural traditions, expectations, family relationships, and friendship were explored within the context of Chitra, a Bengali woman, living with Americans in the assisted living facility, and her two sons with their own families and personal health needs trying to do best by her.
Aging is a universal experience, but it’s certainly not the same for everyone. This was a deeply human look at one woman’s experience being in a foreign country, losing the ability to care for herself, having her plans derailed, and longing to be understood and have her wishes be taken seriously.
There’s a lot to think about in this memorable read. It packed a punch of a story into a relatively short number of pages. I highly recommend.
Though she moved to the US and raised her family there, Chitra continued to maintain her house in India throughout the years. Now an elderly widow, Chitra is desperate to return to India after her sons place her in an American assisted living facility following her stroke. Her temporary stay becomes more and more extended. Chitra becomes more and more determined to go home.
I absolutely adored Chitra Demands to Go Home! I was laughing and crying. Mukhopadhyay’s characters were deeply compelling, feeling so genuine. The realistic plot made this an especially poignant read. I loved seeing Chitra’s development.
Themes of aging, caregiving, cultural traditions, expectations, family relationships, and friendship were explored within the context of Chitra, a Bengali woman, living with Americans in the assisted living facility, and her two sons with their own families and personal health needs trying to do best by her.
Aging is a universal experience, but it’s certainly not the same for everyone. This was a deeply human look at one woman’s experience being in a foreign country, losing the ability to care for herself, having her plans derailed, and longing to be understood and have her wishes be taken seriously.
There’s a lot to think about in this memorable read. It packed a punch of a story into a relatively short number of pages. I highly recommend.
June 12, 2026
Chitra Demands to Go Home hit home for me in so many ways. Growing up Asian American, I deeply resonate with this conflict of traditional culture/duty vs modern life/reality that Mukhopadhyay captures so beautifully through the eyes of Chitra. My heart breaks for Chitra because I understand how lonely and abandoned she must have felt at the assisted living facility. At the same time, I deeply relate to the exasperation her sons feel, especially given their traumatic upbringing of always feeling like a failure. It’s a no-win situation, but Chitra’s friendship with Helen demonstrates the power of unconditional love. Mukhopadhyay’s masterful storytelling creates an immersive experience that is forever etched in my heart and soul.
June 24, 2026
Chitra Demands to Go Home is a story that leaves the reader with a quiet ache. When Chitra—sharp-tongued, set in her ways, and often blind to how her words land—suffers a stroke and ends up in assisted living in Columbus, Ohio, she fixes on a single goal: returning to Kolkata. The story drops us deep into her isolation, painting a picture of all she misses. Her native language. Bengali cuisine. And all the celebrations and traditions that filled her days. Her stubborn behavior drives everyone away except a single, insistent resident who breaks through her shell and coaxes her to once again enjoy small things like tea, shortbread cookies, and time spent with a new friend. Even so, she never stops trying to return home.
August 16, 2026
What a fantastic debut novel.
I couldn't help but think of all the people I'd recommend this to as I was reading. Anyone who might have expectations for what aging will be like, anyone with aging parents they're assisting or will need to, anyone wanting an amazing model of what friendship should look like (at any age), anyone struggling with being in an environment that's unfamiliar... The list goes on, because this book is a wonderfully layered story with a depth that welcomes moments of introspection all along the way.
I'll eagerly pick up anything else Raj writes - this story was beautiful.
I couldn't help but think of all the people I'd recommend this to as I was reading. Anyone who might have expectations for what aging will be like, anyone with aging parents they're assisting or will need to, anyone wanting an amazing model of what friendship should look like (at any age), anyone struggling with being in an environment that's unfamiliar... The list goes on, because this book is a wonderfully layered story with a depth that welcomes moments of introspection all along the way.
I'll eagerly pick up anything else Raj writes - this story was beautiful.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Chitra Demands to Go Home is both tongue-in-cheek funny and poignant. And while Chitra is a particular woman with no end of baggage, she represents all of us boomers as we age and face the reality of losing agency in our 21st century lives. In relatively few pages Mukhopadhyay skillfully touches on many salient aspects of life, loss, 3rd-culture kids, blended families and caring for aging family members. Chitra's story is a clever and succinct rendering of life in our times. I suspect few can read this story without seeing aspects of themselves, their children or their parents. And in the end, Chitra's story, stripped of its cultural context remains a human story and is universal.
August 13, 2026
This was almost a DNF about 20 pages in - Chitra's toxic attitude was way too triggering at times. I'm glad I stuck with it, the friendship between Helen and Chitra was written well and I appreciated the unique way they bonded and held space for each other.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews