The Konkans - Couverture souple

Francisco D'Sai is a firstborn son of a firstborn son—all the way back to the beginning of a long line of proud Konkans. Known as the "Jews of India," the Konkans kneeled before the Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama's sword and before Saint Francis Xavier’s cross, abandoned their Hindu traditions, and became Catholics. In 1973 Francisco's Konkan father, Lawrence, and American mother, Denise, move to Chicago, where Francisco is born. His father, who does his best to assimilate into American culture, drinks a lot and speaks little. But his mother, who served in the Peace Corps in India, and his uncle Sam (aka Samuel Erasmus D'Sai) are passionate raconteurs who do their best to preserve the family's Konkan heritage. Friends, allies, and eventually lovers, Sam and Denise feed Francisco’s imagination with proud visions of India and Konkan history.

Filled with romance, comedy, and masterful storytelling, The Konkans leaves us surprised by what secrets history may hold for us if only we wonder enough to look.

 

Francisco D'Sai is the firstborn son of a firstborn son - the latest in a long line of proud Konkans stretching back for centuries. Since he was old enough to hear the tales of his noble forebears, Francisco has known what it meant to be a Konkan in India. But what does it mean to be a Konkan in Illinois? His father, desperate to shed his past and fit in, drinks a lot and speaks very little, while his pony-tailed all-American mother remains as bewitched by India as when she first met her husband there. And then uncle Sam arrives from Chikmagalur, bringing with him all the dust and chaos of his homeland, along with enough stories to dazzle Francisco and enough charm to seduce his mother - Taking us from the villages on western India to the suburbs of 1970s Chicago, "The Konkans" is the exuberant portrait of one uprooted family, chasing the immigrant dream and creating their own family legends along the way.