Sorry for the Inconvenience

A Memoir

By: Farah Naz Rishi, Mindy Kaling - introduction

Narrated by: Farah Naz Rishi

2025 Audie Award Finalist for Best Audiobook Narrated by the Author

“Incredible…this story ripped my heart in two, had me grabbing for the tissues, and then put me back together again.” —Mindy Kaling

From a Pakistani American author comes a bracing memoir about tradition, upending expectations, and the volatility of family, friendship, and, inevitably, love.

Pakistani American Farah Naz Rishi’s first year of college was perfectly, thankfully, uneventful. After all, she was in college to learn and forge a path of self-sufficiency, especially after her last relationship fell apart—dashing her mother’s aspirations for an early marriage. What could Farah expect, anyway? For the ideal guy to just conveniently waltz into her life? Life isn’t a love story.

Enter Stephen, a Jamaican student with an open smile and a disarmingly laid-back attitude. It’s not love at first sight. And there’s no way Farah’s mother would approve of him as marriage material. But they have something better: an inexplicable connection. Through a series of impossible tragedies, grief, and trying to find her place in the world, Stephen is always there as Farah’s confidant, champion, and, most of all, best friend. Anything more could ruin a perfectly good thing…Right?

Spanning thirteen years of complex family dynamics and a surprising kinship, Farah Naz Rishi’s story explores the unpredictability of love—familial, platonic, and romantic, but never truly instant.

©2024 Farah Naz Rishi (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“With forthright prose and dashes of acerbic humor, Rishi does justice to the complexities of inchoate affection and cross-cultural clashes. It’s powerful stuff.” —Publishers Weekly

“This memoir is incredibly unputdownable—readers will leave it breathless and in awe of Rishi’s clarity and strength…All will be endlessly grateful to Rishi for sharing so generously her experiences of the beautiful contradictions of family.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Eloquent, intimate, fascinating and memorable…” —Midwest Book Review

Wonderful Memoir

I’m crying while I write this review. I’m not the child of first generation immigrants but I did grow up in a dysfunctional family, and can relate with a lot of the relationship that the author had with her parents. It is unfortunately a much more common occurrence than we realize.

This is the first book that I have read by this author but it certainly will not be my last. I love her writing, and she is a very good narrator, as well. I loved this book!

Beautiful and devastating

Beautiful story but by parts devastating, this book made me cry and feel so many things. Thank you to the author for writing this and to Stephen for being so amazing. The voice actor is also very good!

Excellent book

Thank you for this excellent book. Very sad story, but amazing book. Thank you again

Oh My Heart!

My heart is both broken and warmed. Such a great story. It's inspiring and tragic and hopeful. So well written and equally, if not better, performed. I am interested in checking out Farah's other books.

Strength Where There Should Be None

Title says it all and then some,
Let it be known that you’re not alone in this.
No one is.

I loved going on this journey

This was a well told story and I would recommend it. Just know that there are some exceptionally sad parts of the book. I like the author reading it with all of her personality. Read it!

Heartbreaking and uplifting

I loved this memoir. Ms. Rishi writes in that special way that draws you in without you even realizing it. I read her debut, I HOPE YOU GET THIS MESSAGE, which is also excellent. I don’t normally read memoirs, but I am so glad I read this one. My heart aches for what she went through, while at the same time swells with hope at the life she is creating now. Have already purchased IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU, and look forward to listening to it. Count me as a fan.

So real!

I needed someone I could relate! Amazing story of a perfectly imperfect human just like me! Thank you