Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. There's a small, almost throwaway joke

author Sarah Thuncom Matthews makes in today's interview that'll stick with me for a bit. Her book,

All This Could Be Different follows a young 20-something woman named Sneha, who's just out of college

and entering the post-09 recession world. And she does what a lot of folks

in their 20s do, have sex, and make friends. But at such a specific time, and in this interview

with Here and Now's Robin Young, Matthews talks about showing the book to her younger sister,

and she jokingly calls it a 2013 period piece, which like is kind of true, right? There's an air of both optimism and

gloom to that time that makes a unique setting for a coming-of-age novel. Just a heads up,

there was a lot of buzz over this book, and this interview was taped just ahead of the National

Book Awards, which Matthews didn't win, but come on, being a finalist, ain't too shabby.

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The National Book Awards are tonight, a huge honor for any author. But what if this is your first nomination, your first book, and you're just 31?

Well, then you would be Sarah Thuncombe Matthews, nominated for her extraordinary debut novel,

All This Could Be Different.

Set in Milwaukee in 2013, it centers around 22-year-old college grad Snea, the daughter of immigrant parents who were unfairly deported back to

India in a scandal that's humiliated all of them. Snea, left in the U.S., has just graduated into a

recession, and lands a job that is a laughable scam, but for her parents, she projects the image of the

successful, smart, Indian, awaiting

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