Subhash and Udayan are brothers born in Calcutta, separated by temperament and political conviction. While Subhash moves to Rhode Island to pursue a career in marine biology, Udayan joins the Naxalite movement, a violent Maoist rebellion in 1960s West Bengal. Following Udayan's execution by the police, Subhash returns to India to marry his brother's pregnant widow, Gauri, and brings her back to America. The narrative tracks their subsequent decades, focusing on Gauri’s eventual abandonment of her daughter, Bela, and the lingering influence of Udayan’s radicalism on three generations of the family.
Readers interested in the intersections of historical insurgency and domestic life will find a detailed account of how political violence reshapes private identity. The book serves those who study the tension between duty to family and ideological commitment. A reader finishes the work with an understanding of how unresolved grief and secrets regarding paternity dictate the trajectory of immigrant lives. It provides a specific look at the structural impact of the Naxalite insurgency on those who stayed in India and those who fled.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2013
- Language
- EN
