All This Could Be Different is the debut novel that brought Sarah Thankam Mathews into the world's limelight of literature. Sarah Thankam Mathews was brought up in India and Oman before migrating to the United States of America at age 17. In 2020, Sarah Thankam Mathews won Best America Short Stories Award. Later in the same year, she received Asian American Writers Award. All This Could Be Different novel has been featured in AGNI and the Best American Short Stories in 2022.
Sarah Thankam Mathews's debut novel is about the experiences of women immigrants in the United States of America, and she narrates her experience using the protagonist Sneha. After careful reflection on her experiences, Sarah Thankam Mathews decided to share her story with the rest of the world. Sneha's narrative shows what immigrant women go through in learning institutions, workplaces, and relationships. After Sneha graduates high school, her immigrant parents are deported to their native land, India. Consequently, Sneha has to face life alone, which is not easy. Sneha relocates to Milwaukee, where she gets a corporate job. Unfortunately, her boss often fails to pay her due to her immigrant status. Sneha needs more money to meet her bills, and her landlord is at loggerheads with her every month. Life for Sneha is very difficult, and she assumes things are not working out because she is a coward.
In the novel, Sarah Thankam Mathews explores big concepts such as free enterprise, femininity, sexuality, and Western egoism. After publication, the novel received positive reviews because it accounts for how young people, especially immigrant women, struggle to fight for their place in society.
