Thankam Mathews, Sarah

Sarah Thankam Mathews grew up between Oman and India, immigrating to the United States at 17. Her work has been published in Best American Short Stories, and she is a recipient of fellowships from the Asian American Writers’ Workshop and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. In 2020, she founded the mutual aid group Bed-Stuy Strong. All This Could Be Different: A Novel (Viking) is her fiction debut. In it, we meet Sneah, a young immigrant who has moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, while grueling, seems to unlock every door. She can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women – soon developing a crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach. But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets are revealed, jobs go off the rails, evictions loom. As Sneah throws herself headlong into her new romance, Tig draws a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all. All This Could Be Different is one immigrant’s journey – and a story of queer love and building community amidst struggle.