A first-time novelist takes a humorous look at a Massachusetts coastal community.
By Juliet Pennington
Sara Shukla insists that Pink Whales, her debut novel, is not an autobiography.
However, there are undeniable similarities between the main character, Charlie, and the novelist. Both moved from the South to coastal New England (Shukla was raised in Poquoson, Virginia, and currently lives in Marion, Massachusetts). Both are moms (the author has three children, 14, 12, and 8), and both are married to doctors of Indian descent.
Each is also doing their best to fit in into new surroundings.
“Moving up from my college town to New England and being really awkward at parties… I think that’s where I got the idea for the book,” says Shukla. “I felt like a fish out of water— but in the funniest way. I thought this would be an amusing premise: landing in a place where everything is so idyllic in some ways, but everything’s messy as well.”
In Pink Whales, after her husband’s job brings them and their young twins to a fictional seaside town in Massachusetts, protagonist Charlie is befriended by preppy beach club ladies. These women seem to enjoy perfect lives, which we discover through the book’s humorous and unexpected twists and turns, are anything but.
Shukla, 44, jokes that people in her town are already wondering who inspired certain characters. “I feel like I will spend my summer reminding people that this is fiction,” she says. “I ultimately wanted to have it be a fun beach read, something that pulls you in and makes you care about the characters, but also makes you laugh. I think we all need that… and writing was a way of going to a place that felt fun.”
The author met her husband, Anil Shukla, while both were students at the University of Virginia. They moved to Boston for a short while before returning to Charlottesville so he could attend medical school at the University of Virginia, and she could earn a master’s degree in English education.
Following Dr. Shukla’s career, they bounced between Boston and Virginia several times, eventually settling in New England in 2013 when he accepted a job at St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford, where he is now the chair of emergency medicine. While the couple currently lives in Marion, they plan to move back to Barrington, Rhode Island, where they previously lived.
Shukla began Pink Whales (the title is a nod to the bright sea creatures that often adorn coastal attire) before being hired as a part-time editor at Cognoscenti, WBUR’s ideas and opinion section, an “ideal” position, she says, which she still holds.
She participated in the GrubStreet Novel Incubator program in Boston, an annual workshop in which ten writers are chosen to workshop their novels for a year. Shortly after completing the program, the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began, and her book was put on the back burner.
However, when restrictions were lifted, Shukla started going to coffee shops whenever she could to work on revisions. After completing Pink Whales, she quickly found a publisher and a literary agent. “It’s usually the other way around,” she notes. With the novel hitting bookstores this past summer, Shukla says she is proud of her work and is already noodling ideas for a second novel. “I’m thinking straight-up rom-com and having some fun with that,” she says. “Pink Whales is more rom-com adjacent.”
