About

Hafeez Lakhani is an Indian American writer who was born in Hyderabad, India, and raised in suburban South Florida. His fiction and essays have appeared in literary publications including Crazyhorse, The Southern Review, The Cortland Review, Salt Hill Journal, and Tikkun. Lakhani has received fellowships from PEN America and the Center for Fiction. His essays have been recognised in The Best American Essays, and he has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. His writing often explores identity, family, cultural belonging, and the complexities of contemporary American life. Abundance is his debut novel.

Books on TheBookRoads

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Abundance
Abundance
Set in suburban Miami, Abundance follows the Bharwani family, a Muslim Indian American family navigating ambition, faith, sacrifice, and the complicated pursuit of the American Dream. Sixty-year-old Sakeena Bharwani co-owns a Dunkin’ franchise with her husband, Ramzan. Thirty years earlier, she left Rawalpindi, Pakistan, to build a new life in the United States. Over the years, she has made difficult compromises between her religious belief in naseeb—the idea of destiny—and her desire to shape her own future. Now facing a life-threatening liver condition, Sakeena refuses a potentially life-saving transplant, believing that she should accept her fate rather than intervene in what she sees as God’s plan. Desperate to save his wife, Ramzan tries to bring their adult children together. Their eldest daughter, Fareen, is consumed by her ambitions in the competitive world of finance, while their son, Adnan, is entangled in questionable international business dealings that prevent him from returning home. Their daughter Kawal, meanwhile, must navigate her own responsibilities and family expectations. As Sakeena’s condition deteriorates, the family is forced to confront years of compromises, unspoken resentments, and conflicting ideas about what makes a life meaningful. Through their struggles, Lakhani examines the tension between individual ambition and family duty, the immigrant experience, and the question of how much control people truly have over their destinies. With a nuanced portrayal of a multigenerational immigrant family, Abundance explores the costs of success and the sacrifices people make in pursuit of security, belonging, and happiness.
2026 United States