Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s first book is excellent. I’m already looking forward to her second.
Her writing is rich and descriptive and beautiful — yet not overly flowery at all.
Secret Daughter is a lovely story that takes place in two countries — U.S. (San Francisco) and India — and spans 25 years. Kavita and Jasu are living in a small Indian village. Girl babies are expensive since they have to be married off with a dowry, and they can’t help with the farming, so they are highly undesirable. Kavita’s first pregnancy is a girl, which her husband takes away to be disposed of. When she has her 2nd daughter, she is determined to save her by taking her to the orphanage.
Somer and Krishna are both doctors — he an emigrant from India from a fairly well-to-do close-knit family, her a white, blonde only child who has been surrounded with love and support. When they have trouble conceiving, Krishna’s mom sends them information about adopting from India.
I loved this book.
The characters were mostly likable and definitely real. The story is told from the point of view of the women in the story. Along with them, we explore the changes that a marriage goes through with age and stress, and the difficulties and joys of raising children. Because the whole book follows two families over such a long period of time, the surface is barely scratched of the day to day details of their lives, and yet, the reader completely understands who they are.
For those of you who monitor the content of your books, I’m fairly sure that this is a clean read. If there was profanity, it was very minimal, and I don’t remember any other “mature content.” It’s not an easy read, because of the hopelessness of the situation of the poor in India, but I didn’t find it to be depressing at all.
The writing was beautiful, the story moved me, and the characters will be with me for a long long time.
Jennifer Donovan loves nothing more than getting lost in a good book. She blogs at Snapshot.
Ok Jennifer, you’ll love this. We just read this book for book group this month. There’s a woman here in Morocco who knows the author (she’s mentioned in the acknowledgements) so she chose the book, bought us all a copy, and had them personally signed by the author. Isn’t that fun?
I enjoyed the book too. One of my fav images from it is where Asha is looking at the slums and realizes the difference between a photo, with clearly-defined edges, and reality, where it goes on forever in all directions, plus smells and noises. I also appreciated the two marriages portrayed between the two sets of parents–bio and adoptive. A great read.
I keep hearing about this book. I will have to pick up a copy soon because everyone has been raving about it.
EDJ–Who would have thought you’d read a book in Morocco before I read it here?? I’ve actually had the ARC for ages and just finally got to it. I missed the photo image theme, but I really enjoyed the look at the marriages as well — all 3 really.
Jennifer–I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Everyone else I’ve talked to who has read it, loved it.
I keep hearing fantastic things about this book, and I really want to read it!
This one sounds fantastic.
I am an adoptive mom in the US. We have one daughter from Kolkata and are waiting for another, so these themes strike close to home. The situations the author describes are all too real: we support a children’s home in Ooty that rescues baby girls who are abandoned and left to die at birth. I’m so glad you recommended this book, and I can’t wait to share this link with my India-adoptive parent group!
Thanks Nancy. It was really an awesome read! If you read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts as one who has lived the story.