Namesake, The

The Namesake begins in India with an arranged marriage and a deadly train crash. The story quickly shifts to 1968 Boston where the Ganguli family have moved to begin a new and promising life. Soon Ashima Ganguli is pregnant, and her son, Gogol Ganguli, becomes the beloved first addition to their family and a symbol of their new hope. As he grows up, Gogol rejects first his name, which he perceives as foreign and foolish, and then further markers of his Bengali heritage.