Margins
The Sixteenth of June book cover
The Sixteenth of June
2014
First Published
3.45
Average Rating
256
Number of Pages

Leopold Portman dreams of settling down in Philadelphia's bucolic suburbs and starting a family with his fiancée, Nora. A talented singer in mourning for her mother, Nora has abandoned a promising opera career and wonders what her destiny holds. Her best friend, Stephen, Leopold's brother, dithers in his seventh year of graduate school and privately questions Leo and Nora's relationship. On June 16, 2004, the three are brought together – first for a funeral, then for the Portmans' annual Bloomsday party. As the long-simmering tensions between them rise, they must confront their pasts and their hopes for the future. The Sixteenth of June delves into the frictions and allegiances of friendships, the murky uncertainty of early adulthood, and the yearning to belong. Offering a nod to James Joyce's Ulysses, this novel explores the secrets we keep and the lengths we go to for acceptance and love.

Avg Rating
3.45
Number of Ratings
446
5 STARS
16%
4 STARS
29%
3 STARS
40%
2 STARS
13%
1 STARS
2%
goodreads

Author

Maya Shanbhag Lang
Maya Shanbhag Lang
Author · 3 books

Maya Shanbhag Lang is the author of What We Carry: A Memoir, (Random House, April 2020), a New York Times Editor's Pick and one Amazon's Best Books of 2020. She is also the author of The Sixteenth of June (Scribner), long listed for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and a Finalist for the Audie Awards for Best Audio Book. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, In Style, and others. Winner the 2017 Neil Shepard Prize in Fiction and the 2012 Rona Jaffe Foundation-Bread Loaf Scholarship in Fiction, she was a Finalist for Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she lives outside of New York City with her daughter. Visit her website at www.mayalang.com

548 Market St PMB 65688, San Francisco California 94104-5401 USA
© 2025 Paratext Inc. All rights reserved