America for beginners (First edition.)

Recently-widowed Pival Sengupta (first time in America, first time travelling alone, first time defying any sort of convention); her tour guide, Satya (Bangladeshi but pretending to be Bengali, doesn't really know anything about America); and her modesty companion, Rebecca (headstrong and modern, an aspiring/failing actress who needs to get out of her rut) are on a cross-country tour from New York to Los Angeles.

Billed as a tour of America, Pival has a secret agenda: to find out the truth about her long-estranged son.

As they journey from one tourist hotspot (Niagara Falls, New Orleans) to another (the Corning Museum of Glass), and their preconceptions about each other and about America are challenged, this unlikely trio might just make it - and, with a little beginner's luck, learn how to live again.