Chitra Demands to Go Home (paperback)

By Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay

Publication date: May 12, 2026

A poignant debut novel that explores mother-son relationships, cross-cultural conversations, and the tribulations of getting older.

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.

Book Details:
Publication Date: May 12, 2026
Format: Paperback Original
Pages: 192
ISBN: 978-1-964403-06-9

Early Praise:
"What fun—mixed with pathos—to experience the judgy, feisty, brittle, determined mind of 75-year-old Chitra. Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay writes about the indignities of aging far from home with heart and humor and lets readers see and sympathize not only with Chitra but also the people she puzzles and hurts. Chitra Demands to Go Home is a story for anyone growing older and wondering what it all means, searching for home, battling nostalgia, or navigating culture clashes, within and without themselves. In other words, it's a story so many of us have been waiting for."
—Eman Quotah, author of Bride of the Sea and The Night Is Not for You

"Mukhopadhyay gives us an extraordinary, riveting heroine in Chitra, who defies both age and expectation to long and search for a true meaning of home. Here is a novel to delight in and be transported by."
—Nayantara Roy, bestselling author of The Magnificent Ruins

"From her room at Tranquil Town—a squat brick nursing home in Columbus, Ohio, where a yoga instructor chirps misappropriated namastes—Chitra dreams of her Kolkata house: its shutters the pale blue of winter skies, its terrace crowded with earthen flower pots, the verandah where she once took her afternoon tea. Though her legs refuse to heal, she begins to plan an impossible journey home. With crystalline prose and quiet humor, this poignant story explores the distance between longing and reality, the gulf between generations, and the unexpected grace of friendship in the most unlikely places."
—Varun Gauri, author of For the Blessings of Jupiter and Venus

“Engaging… this novel captures the heartbreak and loneliness of homesickness but also celebrates the joy of unexpected friendships.”
—Sayantani Dasgupta, author of Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)comfort and Delight

"Fans of A Man Called Ove rejoice! Your next favorite book is here. With Chitra, Rajendrani Mukhopadhyay has crafted a memorable main character who leaps off the page. Her story will stick with you long after you finish reading."
—Katherine Pickett, author of Debra Lee Won't Break