Housesitting: A Novel

A smart and daring debut novel about a young woman who discovers herself within a series of housesitting gigs and soon becomes entangled in a couple's private life, perfect for readers of Luster and The Guest

“An auspicious and exciting debut.” —Lorrie Moore

Rumi is fresh out of college and looking for a place to live in the city when she stumbles into the perfect arrangement: housesitting a beautiful townhouse in the West Village. The house comes with a menagerie of animals to care for, a fully-stocked fridge and pantry, and Saif—a handsome writer ten years her senior who uses the upstairs office as his workspace.

Aimless, energetic, and unmoored, Rumi is attracted to Saif, who is wise and sophisticated, everything Rumi hopes to one day be. But Saif is not entirely available. His relationship with a woman named Jaya is more complex than it seems, and soon, Rumi finds herself growing closer to the two of them—and closer, too, to discovering the person she wants to become.

As Rumi explores her new adult life within the intimate, liminal spaces of other people’s homes—first in the West Village, and later, within other housesitting gigs, too—she must examine intricate questions about her own immigration from India, her duties towards the people who raised her, and the contesting cultures to which she belongs. Pallavi Wakharkar’s Housesitting is a novel brimming with confident clarity. What does it mean to belong in a home, to belong in a country—to belong, even, to the people we love?