The True Happiness Company | Random House Publishing Group

About the Book

In this darkly humorous and wrenchingly sincere memoir, a young Indian American woman’s dreams of being a well-adjusted college student get wildly derailed when her struggles with mental health land her in the office of a charismatic alternative therapist and his self-help cult.

It is hard for Veena Dinavahi to live while her classmates keep dying. The high-achieving daughter of loving Indian immigrants, Veena lives in a typical white American suburb—except for its unusually high suicide rate. For years, she tries to manage her mental health in all the right ways, but nothing seems to work. Until, on a late-night Google search, Veena’s mom discovers Bob Lyon—a sixty-year-old white man in the backwoods of Georgia who claims he can make her want to live again. He calls himself “The True Happiness Company” and, as their relationship progresses, “Daddy.” Veena becomes increasingly enveloped in his strangely close-knit community, and before she knows it, she’s a college dropout, married mother of three, and Mormon convert who has gotten way too good at dismissing her gut feeling that something is wrong. But when Veena’s treatment goes too far, she slowly begins to question whether true happiness can even exist as an absolute.

In this revelatory debut, Veena traces the contours of her life to explore the question that plagued her in the years afterward: how did I fall for that? And what will it mean to move forward?

Told with unflinching clarity and shot through with incisive wit, The True Happiness Company is Veena Dinavahi’s singular exploration of what it means to lose and reclaim your identity, rethink mental illness, and learn to trust your intuition in a world determined to annihilate it.

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Praise for The True Happiness Company

“Honest, brutal, funny, fascinating. A vital reminder of how important it is to trust ourselves.”—Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy

“Veena Dinavahi is a ferocious writer with a poetic left hook. She deftly uses her story to expose how easily our longing can become leverage—and no one is immune. This vital memoir wrestles with the question: If our decisions are always borne of a social script, what exactly is free will?”—Bethany Joy Lenz, New York Times bestselling author of Dinner for Vampires

“Dinavahi fully captures the disorienting experience of what it means to abandon trust in oneself—and the deep courage and vulnerability it takes to return. In a society that profits from our anxieties and exploits our loneliness, this remarkable story challenges common notions of normalcy and wellness.”—Prachi Gupta, author They Called Us Exceptional

“Dinavahi has hacked her way through a forest of horrors, and emerged funnier, wiser, and more optimistic than most. I loved this big-hearted debut and look forward to reading more from her astonishing voice.”—Priyanka Mattoo, author of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones

“A triumph . . . The True Happiness Company is a riveting exploration of identity and journey to self. Equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming, Dinavahi accomplishes the impossible task of universalizing her singular experience.”—Dr. Sarafina El-Badry Nance, Ph.D., author of Starstruck

“Dinavahi has accomplished something spectacular. Without sensationalizing, she tells a story of joining and leaving a cult. There is a masterful balance between the minutia of her life, and the underlying forces—mental health, patriarchy, racism—that ruled it. This is everything a memoir should be.”—Ruben Reyes Jr., author of There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven

“Dinavahi’s story will have you gasping, crying, and cheering.”—Julie Sarkissian, author of Dear Lucy

“How could an intelligent woman, with robust family support, be sucked into a cult? Dinavahi explores that question in her poignant debut. Dinavahi’s conversational tone and clear-eyed sense of her own vulnerability make for a powerful self-portrait. It’s equal parts fascinating and edifying.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Dinavahi is a talented writer with a dark sense of humor. Her intensely vulnerable storytelling vividly illustrates the ways in which society preys on the insecurity of neurodiverse women and, in particular, neurodiverse women of color. A brilliant, personal take on the pernicious power of cults.”—Kirkus Reviews

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About the Author

Veena Dinavahi

Veena Dinavahi is an Indian American writer who divides her time between Connecticut and New York. Her personal essays have appeared in The Rumpus and Pulp Magazine. She holds a degree in psychology from Columbia University and currently works in the fashion industry. The True Happiness Company is her first book. More by Veena Dinavahi

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