A uniquely quiet yet searing exploration of racism, belonging, and the unseen struggles of immigrants navigating a foreign land.

Fresh out of college Pavitra arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a coveted high school teaching position in physics and math. Her student visa grants her twelve months of Optional Practical Training (OPT)—a brief window to gain work experience, to find her footing, to carve out a space in a country that welcomes her labor but not necessarily her presence.

She expects obstacles—visa paperwork, cultural adjustments, the challenge of proving herself in an unfamiliar system. But what she doesn’t anticipate is the loneliness, the quiet exclusions, the feeling of never quite being seen.

Through a series of sharply observed vignettes and conversations, OPT traces Pavitra’s journey as she searches for housing, for community, for a sense of security in a place that subtly—sometimes overtly—pushes back. Her daily existence is shaped by microaggressions that accumulate like fine dust, by the unspoken hierarchies that dictate who belongs and who remains on the margins. Yet through it all, Pavitra resists, questions, and persists.

A deeply moving, incisive debut, Optional Practical Training captures the tension between hope and disillusionment, privilege and invisibility, ambition and the quiet toll of simply trying to exist.

#ShubhaSubar #OptionalPracticalTraining #Greywolf #ImmigrantStories #TheWeightOfBelonging #QuietButPowerful

This was a great book! It focused on the post 9/11 america and world, and looked at it from the perspective of someone who americans were afraid of. It was a great perspective to view this event from. It was very interesting, covered a lot about racism, and fear, and a lot about the manipulation that american media does to trick and sway americans into believing a false narrative of the world. It is a scare tactic done by the govt.

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!